Scientists claimed that blindness from glaucoma begins with an injury in the brain, not the eye.

Research group, led by David Calkins, director of research at Vanderbilt University's Eye Institute, said that glaucoma, which is the major cause of irreversible blindness, appears first in the brain, not the eye.

Boffins discovered this after injecting glaucoma-afflicted rodents with a special fluoresceine, which illuminated segments of the middle of the brain where the optic tract forms its first connections.

After thorough researches, researchers discovered that glaucoma's early signals were not in the innermost light-sensitive membrane covering up the back wall of the eyeball (retina).

In its place, glaucoma turned that out the earliest damage was at the other end of the optic nerve, in the mid-brain, which lost its ability to receive information from optic nerve fibers.

The nervus opticus is a cable, which links the retina with the part of the central nervous system that includes all the higher nervous centers.

Darrell WuDunn, residency program director of the Department of Ophthalmology at Indiana University School of Medicine, told Discovery News, said, "It's a very interesting study. It does have potentially profound implications for treatment, and even diagnosis, of glaucoma, if it holds true for humans."

"This study shows that the deficits start in the brain, not the eye," WuDunn added.

The study was released in the March 1 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (With Input from Agencies)