Abstract
In the standard view all information from the fovea is relayed via only two types of ganglion cell, P (midget) and M (parasol) thought to form respectively 90–95% and 5–10% of the ganglion cell population. We characterized all 157 ganglion cells in a small patch of macaque fovea using electron micrographs of serial sections. One hundred fifteen (73%) were midget ganglion cells and were of two types, one with 28 ± 4 bipolar synapses and the other with 47 ± 3 synapses. Forty-two (27%) were non-midget ganglion cells. Most had dendrites restricted to either sublamina a or sublamina b of the inner plexiform layer, but one quarter had dendrites in both. These cells were of two types, one with input in sublamina b from blue cone bipolar cells and the other with only diffuse bipolar cell input. The ganglion cells with dendrites in either sublamina a or sublamina b were of at least one type with the possibility of more. We conclude that non-midget ganglion cells are numerous and provide additional parallel arrays to brain.
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Calkins, D.J., Schein, S.J., Tsukamoto, Y., Sterling, P. (1995). Ganglion cell circuits in primate fovea. In: Drum, B., et al. Colour Vision Deficiencies XII. Documenta Ophthalmologica Proceedings Series, vol 57. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0507-1_32
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