Photosensitive Ganglion Cell

Photosensitive Ganglion Cell

Photosensitive ganglion cells, also called photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells (pRGC), intrinsically photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells (ipRGC) or melanopsin-containing ganglion cells, are a type of neuron (nerve cell) in the retina of the mammalian eye. They were discovered in 1923, forgotten, rediscovered in the early 1990s and are, unlike other retinal ganglion cells, intrinsically photosensitive. This means that they are a third class of retinal photoreceptors, excited by light even when all influences from classical photoreceptors (rods and cones) are blocked (either by applying pharmacological agents or by dissociating the ganglion cell from the retina). Photosensitive ganglion cells contain the photopigment melanopsin. The giant retinal ganglion cells of the primate retina are examples of photosensitive ganglion cells.