Retinal ganglion cell

The Retinal Ganglion Cells (RGC) are neurones which are found on the inner surface of the retina. Their main function is to process information provided by photoreceptors.

There are more than a million RGCs in humans each one reporting on a different part of the visual field. Their axons converge on the optic nerve head at the back of the eye and travel together along the developing optic nerve toward the brain. Their main site of termination, in most vertebrates other than mammals, is the optic tectum. In connecting with tectal neurons, the RGC axons distribute themselves in a predictable pattern according to the arrangement of their cell bodies in the retina: RGCs that are neighbours in the retina connect with target cells that are neighbours in the tectum. The orderly projection creates a retinotropic map of visual space on the tectum.