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A photoreceptor cell is a specialized type of neuroepithelial cell found in the retina that is capable of visual phototransduction.The great biological importance of photoreceptors is that they convert light (visible electromagnetic radiation) into signals that can stimulate biological processes.
Rod cells are photoreceptor cells in the retina of the eye that can function in lower light better than the other type of visual photoreceptor, cone cells.Rods are usually found concentrated at the outer edges of the retina and are used in peripheral vision.
Visual phototransduction is the sensory transduction process of the visual system by which light is detected by photoreceptor cells (rods and cones) in the vertebrate retina.A photon is absorbed by a retinal chromophore (each bound to an opsin), which initiates a signal cascade through several intermediate cells, then through the retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) comprising the optic nerve.
The Stiles–Crawford Effect is quantified as a function of distance (d) away from the center of the pupil using the following equation: () =,where η is the relative luminance efficiency, and d is defined as positive on the temporal side of the pupil and negative on the nasal side of the pupil.
However, these numbers vary greatly among individuals and as a function of retinal location. In the fovea (center of the retina), a single ganglion cell will communicate with as few as five photoreceptors. In the extreme periphery (edge of the retina), a single ganglion cell will receive information from many thousands of photoreceptors.
The distribution of photoreceptors in the retina is called the retinal mosaic, which can be determined using photobleaching. This is done by exposing dark-adapted retina to a certain wavelength of light that paralyzes the particular type of cone sensitive to that wavelength for up to thirty minutes from being able to dark-adapt, making it ...
The amacrine cells also introduce lateral inhibition to the axon terminal, serving various visual functions including efficient signal transduction with high signal-to-noise ratio. [ 3 ] The mechanism for producing the center of a bipolar cell's receptive field is well known: direct innervation of the photoreceptor cell above it, either through ...
[9] [27] The identity of the non-rod, non-cone photoreceptor in humans was found to be a ganglion cell in the inner retina as shown previously in rodless, coneless models in some other mammals. The work was done using patients with rare diseases that wiped out classic rod and cone photoreceptor function but preserved ganglion cell function.