Editor's Summary

4 October 2007

Seeing the light

Our visual world contains an enormous range of light levels — a hundred times greater than the range of output signals that neurons in the retina are able to represent. Yet we can still see in conditions from darkened cinemas to bright sunlight. Part of this is possible because cone photoreceptors adapt their mean output to the prevailing light conditions: now a second adaptation mechanism has been found between the cone bipolar cells and ganglion cells. The two mechanisms are complementary, with the dominant site switching — from retinal circuitry to cone adaptation — as light levels increase.

Letter: Light adaptation in cone vision involves switching between receptor and post-receptor sites

Felice A. Dunn, Martin J. Lankheet & Fred Rieke

doi:10.1038/nature06150

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