Chronic exposure to nicotine may lead to a desensitization of nico-tinic acetylcholine receptors: this adaptive response could change thenumber of functional receptors on RGCs
How might nicotine's effects on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors interfere with retinal waves?
Furthermore, we took advantage ofthe family-based design of the SYS cohort and showed that—in sister-sister pairs discordant for maternal smoking during pregnancy—theexposed sisters had lower V1 surface area than the non-exposed ones.
How does comparing siblings who differed in prenatal smoking exposure strengthen the researcher's conclusions.
Limitations
Since the study does not directly demonstrate that the changes in retinal waves cause the smaller V1 surface area, could another study/experiment be conducted to test this proposed mechanism more directly?