Human eye Human eye The human eye is an organ which reacts to light and pressure. As a sense organ, the mammalian eye allows vision. Human eyes help to provide a three dimensional, moving image, normally coloured in daylight. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth. The human eye can differentiate between about 10 million colors and is possibly capable of detecting a single photon. Similar to the eyes of other mammals, the human eye's non-image-forming photosensitive ganglion cells in the retina receive light signals which affect adjustment
Intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells able to isomerize "all-trans-"retinal into "11-cis-"retinal when stimulated with light without help from additional cells. The two isoforms of melanopsin differ in their spectral sensitivity, for the "11-cis"-retinal isoform is more responsive to shorter wavelengths of light, while the "all-trans" isoform is more responsive to longer wavelengths of light. ipRGCs are both pre- and postsynaptic to dopaminergic amacrine cells (DA cells) via reciprocal synapses, with ipRGCs sending excitatory signals to the DA cells and the DA cells sending inhibitory signals to the ipRGCs. These inhibitory signals are mediated through GABA which is co-released from the DA cells along with dopamine.