Docosahexaenoic acid explains the unexplained in visual transduction
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
In George Wald's Nobel Prize acceptance speech for "discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye", he noted that events after the activation of rhodopsin are too slow to explain visual reception. Photoreceptor membrane phosphoglycerides contain near-saturation amounts of the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). The visual response to a photon is a retinal cis-trans isomerization. The trans-state is lower in energy; hence, a quantum of energy is released equivalent to the sum of the photon and cis-trans difference. We hypothesize that DHA traps this energy, and the resulting hyperpolarization extracts the energized electron, which depolarizes the membrane and carries a function of the photon's energy (wavelength) to the brain. There, it contributes to the creation of the vivid images of our world that we see in our consciousness. This proposed revision to the visual process provides an explanation for these previously unresolved issues around the speed of information transfer and the purity of conservation of a photon's wavelength and supports observations of the unique and indispensable role of DHA in the visual process.
Date Issued
2023-11-06
Date Acceptance
2023-10-26
Citation
Entropy: international and interdisciplinary journal of entropy and information studies, 2023, 25 (11)
ISSN
1099-4300
Publisher
MDPI AG
Journal / Book Title
Entropy: international and interdisciplinary journal of entropy and information studies
Volume
25
Issue
11
Copyright Statement
© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37998212
Subjects
di-DHA phosphatidylcholine
docosahexaenoic
docosapentaenoic
essential fatty acids
hexatriaconta-hexaenoic
membrane
non-classicality
quantum-field
retina
rhodopsin
vision
waveform
π-electrons
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Switzerland
Article Number
1520
Date Publish Online
2023-11-06