Parasol cell
cell type
A parasol cell, sometimes called an M cell or M ganglion cell, is one type of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) located in the ganglion cell layer of the retina. These cells project to magnocellular cells in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) as part of the magnocellular pathway in the visual system. They have large cell bodies as well as extensive branching dendrite networks and as such have large receptive fields. Relative to other RGCs, they have fast conduction velocities. While they do show clear center-surround antagonism (known as spatial opponency), they receive no information about color (absence of chromatic opponency). Parasol ganglion cells contribute information about the motion and depth of objects to the visual system.
Parasol ganglion cells in the Magnocellular pathway
Parasol ganglion cells are the first step in the magnocellular pathway of the visual system. They project from the retina via the optic nerve to the two most ventral layers of the LGN, which is a nucleus of the thalamus, occupied by the magnocellular cells which then mainly project to the striate cortex (V1), typically to the layer 4Cα.
Eventually, the information these cells collect in the retina is sent to various parts of the visual cortex, including the posterior parietal cortex and area V5 through the dorsal stream, and the inferior temporal cortex and area V4 through the ventral stream.
Structure
Parasol ganglion cells are located in the retina of the eyes, and make up roughly 10% of all retinal ganglion cells.
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This entry incorporates text from “Parasol cell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.