burger-menu
close-panel

Charlotte Lozier Institute

Phone: 202-223-8073
Fax: 571-312-0544

2776 S. Arlington Mill Dr.
#803
Arlington, VA 22206

Get Notifications

Sign up to receive email updates from Charlotte Lozier Institute.

close-panel

Become A Defender of Life

Your donation helps us continue to provide world-class research in defense of life.

DONATE

Charlotte Lozier Institute

Phone: 202-223-8073
Fax: 571-312-0544

2776 S. Arlington Mill Dr.
#803
Arlington, VA 22206

The
Voyage of Life

Eye Formation

Dive Deeper
Baby's eyes form from the interaction of nervous tissue, outer tissue called ectoderm starting at 6 weeks. At birth, the newborn is born able to see, but with such low visual acuity that she is legally blind. Visual experience outside the womb helps the visual system finish developing. (Image Credit: Science Source)

The eyes begin forming 22 days after conception, also known as 5 weeks and 1 day gestation.1 Tissue from the developing brain pushes forward towards the face to form an optic cup and the beginnings of the optic nerve, which will connect the eye to the brain. The optic cup becomes the back of the eye, called the retina, which turns light energy into neural signals. The front of the eye, including the cornea and the lens, both form from the surface tissue. Instead of becoming skin, chemical messages from the optic cup turn these structures into transparent tissue. In the eighth gestational week, more surface tissue interacts with the cornea and lens to form the embryo’s eyelids.2 Interestingly, the embryo’s eyelids actually fuse together around 10 weeks, and only reopen around 20 weeks.3

The front and back of the eyeball fuse together by week 10, and muscles start moving the eyes by week 12.4 Eye movements can be detected by ultrasound, and can reveal whether a baby is awake, asleep, or dreaming.5

Most infants are born with light blue or gray eyes. A baby’s eye color finalizes between 6 and 12 months old. The color is determined by the distribution of melanin in the iris. Melanin is the same pigment that gives skin its color. If the melanin stays at the back of the iris, then the eye will be blue. If the melanin is found all over the supporting tissue in the iris, then the eye will be brown.6

Major milestones in eye development:

Age Milestone
Week 6 Lens placode and optic vesicles form.7
Week 8 Pigments developing in retina.8
Week 9 Eyelids form.9
Week 10 The eyeballs finish forming.10 Eyelids fuse together.11
Week 11 Rods start forming.12
Week 12 First eye movements detected.13
Week 18 Layers of the retina start forming.14
Week 20 Rapid eye movements begin. The eyelids open again.15
Week 25 Eyes start functioning.16
Week 28 First fetal responses to light.17
Week 29 Fetal pupils respond to light.18
Back to The Voyage of Life
Sources
  1. Moore, Keith L, TVN Persaud, and Mark G. Torchia. The Developing Human, Clinically Oriented Embryology. 10th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier, 2016.
  2. Moore, Keith L, TVN Persaud, and Mark G. Torchia. The Developing Human, Clinically Oriented Embryology. 10th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier, 2016.
  3. Hatem A. Tawfik et al., “Embryologic and Fetal Development of the Human Eyelid,” Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 32, no. 6 (November 2016): 407–14, https://doi.org/10.1097/IOP.0000000000000702.
  4. Humphrey, Tryphena. “Some Correlations between the Appearance of Human Fetal Reflexes and the Development of the Nervous System.” In Progress in Brain Research, edited by Dominick P. Purpura and J. P. Schadé, 4:93–135. Growth and Maturation of the Brain. Elsevier, 1964. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6123(08)61273-X; Moore, Keith L, TVN Persaud, and Mark G. Torchia. The Developing Human, Clinically Oriented Embryology. 10th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier, 2016.
  5. N. Horimoto et al., “Fetal Eye Movements,” Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology 3, no. 5 (1993): 362–69, https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1469-0705.1993.03050362.x.
  6. Moore, Keith L, TVN Persaud, and Mark G. Torchia. The Developing Human, Clinically Oriented Embryology. 10th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier, 2016.
  7. Sadler, Thomas W. Medical Embyrology. 14th ed., 2019.
  8. Yang S, Zhou J, Li D. Functions and Diseases of the Retinal Pigment Epithelium. Front Pharmacol. 2021 Jul 28;12:727870. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2021.727870
  9. Moore, Keith L, TVN Persaud, and Mark G. Torchia. The Developing Human, Clinically Oriented Embryology. 10th ed. Philadelphia: Elsevier, 2016.
  10. Kwan, Kristen M., Hideo Otsuna, Hinako Kidokoro, Keith R. Carney, Yukio Saijoh, and Chi-Bin Chien. “A Complex Choreography of Cell Movements Shapes the Vertebrate Eye.” Development (Cambridge, England) 139, no. 2 (January 2012): 359–72. https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.071407.
  11. Tawfik, Hatem A., Mohamed H. Abdulhafez, Yousef A. Fouad, and Jonathan J. Dutton. “Embryologic and Fetal Development of the Human Eyelid.” Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 32, no. 6 (November 2016): 407–14. https://doi.org/10.1097/IOP.0000000000000702.
  12. Tawfik, Hatem A., Mohamed H. Abdulhafez, Yousef A. Fouad, and Jonathan J. Dutton. “Embryologic and Fetal Development of the Human Eyelid.” Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 32, no. 6 (November 2016): 407–14. https://doi.org/10.1097/IOP.0000000000000702.
  13. Humphrey, Tryphena. “Some Correlations between the Appearance of Human Fetal Reflexes and the Development of the Nervous System.” In Progress in Brain Research, edited by Dominick P. Purpura and J. P. Schadé, 4:93–135. Growth and Maturation of the Brain. Elsevier, 1964. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6123(08)61273-X.
  14. Hendrickson, Anita, Keely Bumsted-O’Brien, Riccardo Natoli, Visvanathan Ramamurthy, Daniel Possin, and Jan Provis. “Rod Photoreceptor Differentiation in Fetal and Infant Human Retina.” Experimental Eye Research 87, no. 5 (November 2008): 415–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exer.2008.07.016.
  15. Tawfik, Hatem A., Mohamed H. Abdulhafez, Yousef A. Fouad, and Jonathan J. Dutton. “Embryologic and Fetal Development of the Human Eyelid.” Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 32, no. 6 (November 2016): 407–14. https://doi.org/10.1097/IOP.0000000000000702.
  16. A. Hendrickson, D. Drucker. 'The development of parafoveal and mid-peripheral human retina.' Behavioral Brain Research, 49 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0166-4328(05)80191-3.
  17. Hari Eswaran et al., “Functional Development of the Visual System in Human Fetus Using Magnetoencephalography,” Neuroimaging of Functional Development in Fetuses and Newborns 190 (November 1, 2004): 52–58, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.expneurol.2004.04.007.
  18. Robinson, R. J., and J. P. Tizard. “The Central Nervous System in the Newborn.” British Medical Bulletin 22, no. 1 (January 1966): 49–55. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.bmb.a070436.
See Full Bibliography

All images and illustrations on The Voyage of Life were reviewed by credentialed scientists for accuracy.

Medical art animation was used to provide a schematic representation of fetal development, with some features, including timing, not to scale. The animation was chosen as an ethically uncompromised guide to fetal development. There are many real human images at each developmental age showing the most accurate fetal forms throughout development. A concerted effort was made to use images and material in which the human embryo or fetus did not undergo any known harm.

Page last updated on June 6, 2023
Sperm-egg fusion