PSYCH 5606 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Two-Streams Hypothesis, Ganglion Cell, Receptive Field

• School: Ohio State University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH 5606
• Professor: All

Document Summary

Convergence: 5 million cones, 120 million rods, 2 million ganglion cells. Therefore, many receptors must send signals to each ganglion cell and this is called convergence. The extent of convergence on different parts of the retina produces a tradeoff between sensitivity to low light levels and sensitivity to fine spatial detail. There is greater convergence of rods (sensitive to light) than cones (finer details) onto ganglion cells. Thus, there is a greater summation of rod signals and less stimulation per rod is required to obtain a response. Describe two perceptual phenomena that can be explained by this concept. The response properties of retinal ganglion cells can be explained by the neural circuit depicted above. Note that the neuron being recorded receives excitatory inputs from one group of receptors and inhibitory inputs from receptors in surrounding regions. For an on centered ganglion cell, the response rate is greatest when the stimulus just fills the excitatory central region.