Library · Anatomy
Retina
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The retina is the layer that lines the back of the eye, and it is made of photoreceptors, the cells that receive light, and glial cells, the ones that support and look after them. Its job is to capture the photons that come in, that is, the particles of light, and to turn them into signals it sends to the brain. It is the film at the back of the camera: that is where light becomes a message.
It sits in the posterior segment of the eye, the part at the back, and outside it lie the choroid, which is vascular, and the sclera, which is fibrous. Six main cell types are arranged in the layers that make it up.
The photoreceptors do not all do the same thing. Rods handle mostly peripheral vision and seeing at night; cones handle mostly central vision. There are also the ganglion cells: their axons, the cables that run out of them, come together to form the optic nerve.
In brief
The retina is the layer of photoreceptors and glial cells that captures the photons entering the eye and transmits them to the brain as signals.
It is the film at the back of the camera: that is where light becomes a message.
It lies in the posterior segment, inside the vascular choroid and the fibrous sclera, and six main cell types form its layers.
Rods handle mostly peripheral and night vision and cones central vision; the axons of the ganglion cells form the optic nerve.
Sources (2)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingAnatomy, Head and Neck: Retina, StatPearlsPublished
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingHistology, Retina, StatPearlsPublished
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