Retina bipolar cell Retina bipolar cell As a part of the retina, bipolar cells exist between photoreceptors (rod cells and cone cells) and ganglion cells. They act, directly or indirectly, to transmit signals from the photoreceptors to the ganglion cells. Bipolar cells are so-named as they have a central body from which two sets of processes arise. They can synapse with either rods or cones (rod/cone mixed input BCs have been found in teleost fish but not mammals), and they also accept synapses from horizontal cells. The bipolar cells then transmit the signals from the photoreceptors or the horizontal cells, and pass it
Retina is the only part of the CNS that can be visualized non-invasively. The vertebrate retina is "inverted" in the sense that the light sensing cells are in back of the retina, so that light has to pass through layers of neurons and capillaries before it reaches the rods and cones. In contrast, in the cephalopod retina the photoreceptors are in front, with processing neurons and capillaries behind them. Because of this, cephalopods do not have a blind spot. The overlying neural fibre layer does not degrade vision in the inverted retina. The neurons are transparent and the accompanying glial cells