Scientists have succeeded in bringing dead eyes back to life, proving that "photosensitive neuron cells in the retina can still respond to light and communicate with each other up to five hours after death, sending signals 'resembling those recorded from living subjects,'" reports The Telegraph. While it sounds like something out of an Edgar Allen Poe tale, the finding suggests that brain death might be reversible, which also sounds like a Poe tale.
Lead author Dr Fatima Abbas, of the Moran Eye Centre at the University of Utah, said: "We were able to wake up photoreceptor cells in the human macula, which is the part of the retina responsible for our central vision and our ability to see fine detail and colour.
"In eyes obtained up to five hours after an organ donor's death, these cells responded to bright light, coloured lights and even very dim flashes of light."
Another scientist at the Universtity of Utah, Dr. Frans Vinberg, said, "Retina is part of our central nervous system so we think similar things might be seen also in the other parts of the brain.""
