Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Ganglion Cells

  • Living reference work entry
  • Latest version View entry history
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Color Science and Technology

  • 27 Accesses

Definition

Retinal ganglion cells are the first real neurons in the visual system, and they transmit the visual information to the brain. The retina processes the visual signals, and they determine the response properties of the retinal ganglion cells and the constraints for color vision.

Physiology of Retinal Ganglion Cells

This entry is only concerned with primate retinal ganglion cells. The morphology and physiology of ganglion cells in other mammals and vertebrates may be quite distinct. Trichromatic theories of color mixture have had a tendency to overemphasize the role that L-, M-, and S-cone receptors have for color perception.The realization, however, that these physiological units can only explain the laws of additive color mixture and color matching (metamerism) has led to an end of this bias. Modern cone-opponent color vision models assume antagonistic inputs of two or more cone types to the receptive field of retinal ganglion cells (e.g., +L-center −M-surround, giving an...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Wiesel, T.N., Hubel, D.H.: Spatial and chromatic interactions in the lateral geniculate body of the rhesus monkey. J. Neurophysiol. 29, 1115–1156 (1966)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. DeValois, R.L.: Analysis and coding of color in the primate visual system. Cold Spring Harb. Symp. Quant. Biol. 30, 567–579 (1965)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Lee, B.B., Martin, P.R., Valberg, A.: A physiological basis of heterochromatic flicker photometry demonstrated in the ganglion cells of the macaque retina. J. Physiol. 404, 323–347 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Derrington, A.M., Krauskopf, J., Lennie, P.: Chromatic mechanisms in lateral geniculate nucleus of macaque. J. Physiol. 357, 242–265 (1984)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Valberg, A., Seim, T., Lee, B., Tryti, J.: Reconstruction of equidistant color space from responses of visual neurones of macaques. J. Opt. Soc. Am. A3, 1726–1734 (1986)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Dacey, D.M.: The mosaic of midget ganglion cells in the human fovea. J. Neurosci. 13, 5334–5355 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Wool, L.E., Crook, J.D., Troy, J.B., Packer, O.S., Zaidi, Q., Dacey, D.M.: Nonselective wiring accounts for red-green opponency in midget ganglion cells of the primate retina. J. Neurosci. 38, 1520–1540 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1688-17.2017

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Dacey, D.M., Lee, B.B.: The “blue-on” opponent pathway in primate retina originates from a distinct bistratified ganglion cell type. Nature 367, 732–735 (1994)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Hattar, S., Liao, H.W., Takao, M., Berson, D.M., Yau, K.W.: Melanopsin-containing retinal ganglion cells: architecture, projections, and intrinsic photosensitivity. Science 295, 1065–1070 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Zele, A.J., Feigl, B., Adhikari, P., Maynard, M.L., Cao, D.: Melanopsin photoreception contributes to human visual detection, temporal and colour processing. Sci. Rep. 8, 2842 (2018). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22197-w

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Valberg, A., Seim, T.: Neural mechanisms of chromatic and achromatic vision. Color. Res. Appl. 33, 433–443 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

    Arne Valberg

  2. Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany

    Jan Kremers

Authors
  1. Arne Valberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jan Kremers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jan Kremers .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Color Science & Imaging Lab, North Carolina State Univ, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Renzo Shamey

Section Editor information

  1. Color research & application, Pennsville, NJ, USA

    Rolf Kuehni

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Science+Business Media LLC

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Valberg, A., Kremers, J. (2020). Ganglion Cells. In: Shamey, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Color Science and Technology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27851-8_276-3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27851-8_276-3

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-27851-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27851-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Ganglion Cells
    Published:
    17 November 2019

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27851-8_276-3

  2. Ganglion cells
    Published:
    22 March 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27851-8_276-2

  3. Original

    Ganglion Cells, On-Center Ganglion Cells, Off-Center Ganglion Cells, Midget Ganglion, Diffuse Ganglion Cells
    Published:
    24 September 2015

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27851-8_276-1

Search

Navigation