To find out how mice use their high-resolution ganglion, a team from Harvard attached a tiny camera to a rat volunteer and then watched to see what sorts of things it focused on. Next, they played the video back directly onto the retinas of several test mice while simultaneously monitoring neural cell activity. In so doing, they found that the high-resolution cells sat mostly quiet, doing nothing.

When silhouettes of birds were projected overhead, the waiting ended as the ganglia sprang into action, interpreting every movement. This shows, the researchers say, that the high-resolution neuron groups in mice retinas serve not as interpreters of everyday life, but as highly specific predator detectors. More specifically they found the nerves reacted when the birds were in their center of view, meaning close and ready to snatch them up. Sadly, they also found that the nerves quit firing once the birds came close enough, indicating the mice were doomed.