What can the eye see with melanopsin?

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  • Author(s): Nugent TW;Nugent TW; Zele AJ; Zele AJ
  • Source:
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America [Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A] 2024 Nov 26; Vol. 121 (48), pp. e2411151121. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Nov 21.
  • Publication Type:
    Journal Article
  • Language:
    English
  • Additional Information
    • Source:
      Publisher: National Academy of Sciences Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 7505876 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1091-6490 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00278424 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Subsets: MEDLINE
    • Publication Information:
      Original Publication: Washington, DC : National Academy of Sciences
    • Subject Terms:
      Rod Opsins*/metabolism ; Retinal Ganglion Cells*/physiology ; Retinal Ganglion Cells*/metabolism; Humans ; Vision, Ocular/physiology ; Photic Stimulation/methods ; Retinal Rod Photoreceptor Cells/metabolism ; Retinal Rod Photoreceptor Cells/physiology ; Retinal Cone Photoreceptor Cells/metabolism ; Retinal Cone Photoreceptor Cells/physiology
    • Abstract:
      A subpopulation of human retinal ganglion cells contains the melanopsin photopigment, allowing them to act as a fifth photoreceptor class. These ganglion cells project to the visual cortex, but to reveal its intrinsic contribution to conscious vision is technically challenging as it requires melanopsin to be separated from the responses originating in the rods and three cone classes. Using a display engineered to isolate the melanopic visual response, we show that it detects lowpass spatial (≤0.35 cycles per degree) and temporal image content (≤1 Hz) but cannot reconstruct the stimulus form necessary for object recognition. We demonstrate that a model of the spatially diffuse intrinsically-photosensitive retinal ganglion cells' sampling structure is predictive of the measured image reconstruction limits of melanopic spatial vision. Separately, we find that under five-photoreceptor silent substitution conditions, rod pathways alone can support form vision in bright lighting when typically thought to be in saturation. Form vision that is absent from melanopsin can be only perceived in mixtures of both melanopsin and rod signals because it is the rod pathway that sees the form. Our findings show that melanopsin's unique tuning to the diffuse and slow-changing elements in the world provides a stabilized reference point for vision.
      Competing Interests: Competing interests statement:The authors declare no competing interest.
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    • Grant Information:
      ARC-FT180100458 Department of Education and Training | Australian Research Council (ARC)
    • Contributed Indexing:
      Keywords: human; ipRGCs; melanopsin; silent substitution; vision
    • Accession Number:
      0 (Rod Opsins)
      0 (melanopsin)
    • Publication Date:
      Date Created: 20241121 Date Completed: 20241121 Latest Revision: 20241208
    • Publication Date:
      20241209
    • Accession Number:
      PMC11621463
    • Accession Number:
      10.1073/pnas.2411151121
    • Accession Number:
      39570305