Definition
The retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are the output stage of retinal information processing. They are the only cells in the retina with axons that leave the eye. The ganglion cell axons form the optic nerve and transmit retinal information – in the form of spike trains – to the visual target areas in the brain. The name “ganglion cell” derives from the anatomical notion that these cells constitute the “ganglion nervi optici,” i.e. the cluster of somata that give rise to the fibers of the optic nerve. The ganglion cell somata are located in the ganglion cell layer (GCL), the innermost layer of the retina. The dendrites of the ganglion cells ramify in the inner plexiform layer (IPL) where they are postsynaptic to bipolar cell axons and amacrine cell processes (Retinal bipolar cells). There are more than a dozen different types of ganglion cell in all mammalian retinae studied so far. They differ in dendritic field size and dendritic branching pattern, and they receive input from...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Wässle H, Boycott BB (1991) Functional architecture of the mammalian retina. Physiol Rev 71:447–480
Masland RH (2001) The fundamental plan of the retina. Nat Neurosci 4:877–886
Wässle H (2004) Parallel processing in the mammalian retina. Nat Rev Neurosci 5:747–757
Dacey D (2004) Origins of perception: retinal ganglion cell diversity and the creation of parallel pathways. In: Gazzaniga MS (ed) The cognitive neurosciences III. MIT Press, Cambridge Mass, pp 281–301
Martin PR, Grünert U (2004) Ganglion cells in mammalian Retinae. In: Chalupa LM, Werner JS (eds) The visual neurosciences. MIT Press, Cambridge Mass, pp 410–421
Peichl L (1991) Alpha ganglion cells in mammalian retinae: common properties, species differences, and some comments on other ganglion cells. Vis Neurosci 7:155–169
Rockhill RL, Daly FJ, MacNeil MA, Brown SP, Masland RH (2002) The diversity of ganglion cells in a mammalian retina. J Neurosci 22:3831–3843
Sun W, Li N, He S (2002) Large-scale morphological survey of mouse retinal ganglion cells. J Comp Neurol 451:115–126
Levick WR (1996) Receptive fields of cat retinal ganglion cells with special reference to the alpha cells. Progr Ret Eye Res 15:457–500
Rodieck RW (1998) The first steps in seeing. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland Mass
Berson DM (2003) Strange vision: ganglion cells as circadian photoreceptors. Trends Neurosci 26:314–320
Meister M, Berry MJ (1999) The neural code of the retina. Neuron 22:435–450
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin Heidelberg
About this entry
Cite this entry
Peichl, L. (2009). Retinal Ganglion Cells. In: Binder, M.D., Hirokawa, N., Windhorst, U. (eds) Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29678-2_5106
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29678-2_5106
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-23735-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-29678-2
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences