Intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells

Intrinsically photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells (ipRGCs), also called photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells (pRGC), or melanopsin-containing retinal ganglion cells, are a type of neuron (nerve cell) in the retina of the mammalian eye. While responses to light in mice lacking rods and cone cells were first noted in 1923, they were forgotten, then rediscovered in the early 1990s. The source of these responses was shown to be a special type of retinal ganglion cell, which, unlike other retinal ganglion cells, is 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.