human eye Convergence of the messagesanatomy

The presence of diffuse bipolar and ganglion cells collecting messages from groups of receptors and bipolar cells, and, what may be even more important, the presence of lateral connections of groups of receptors and bipolar cells through the horizontal and amacrine cells, means that messages from receptors over a rather large area of the retina may converge on a single ganglion cell. This convergence means that the effects of light falling on the receptive field may be cumulative, so that a weak light stimulus spread over about 1,000 rods is just as effective as a stronger stimulus spread over 100 or less; in other words, a large receptive field will have a lower threshold than a small one; and this is, in fact, the basis for the high sensitivity of the area immediately outside the fovea, where there is a high density of rods that converge on single bipolar cells. Thus, if it is postulated that the cones do not converge to anything like the same extent as the rods, the greater sensitivity of the latter may be explained; and the anatomical evidence favours this postulate.

It has been indicated above that the regeneration of visual pigment is a cause of the increased sensitivity of the rods that occurs during dark adaptation. This, apparently, is only part of the story. An important additional factor is the change in functional organization of the retina during adaptation. When the eye is light-adapted, functional convergence is small, and sensitivity of rods and cones is low; as dark adaptation proceeds, convergence of rods increases. The anatomical connections do not change, but the power of the bipolar cells and ganglion cells to collect impulses is increased, perhaps by the removal of an inhibition that prevents this during high illumination of the retina.