Intro | Amacrine Cells | Bipolar Cells | Cones | Optic Disk and Blind Spot | Ganglion Cells | Horizontal Cells | Optic Nerve Fibres | Receptor Cells | Rods
Part 1: Image-Mapped Tutorial
Part 2: Matching Self-Test
Part 3: Multiple-Choice Self-Test
After light is absorbed by the rod and cone cells, the neural signals move from bipolar cells to ganglion cells. Horizontal Cells and amacrine cells perform intermediate and lateral processing by integrating information at the bipolar and ganglion cell layers, respectively. An enormous amount of information is integrated and compressed within the retinal circuits; over 130 million receptor cells converge on the approximately 1 million optic nerve fibrers that form the optic nerve.
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The route of visual information within the retina is intuitively backward. After the receptor cells absorb light, the information travels a route toward the middle of the eye and away from its destination, the brain. The rods and cones send their impulses to the bipolar cells. Horizontal cells at this level allow for lateral communication between the rods and cones. Bipolar cells then send impulses to the ganglion cells, located even closer to the center of the eye. Amacrine cells at this level allow for lateral communication between ganglion cells. Only after this level of retinal processing do the axons of ganglion cells loop around and exit the eye at the rear as the optic nerve.