Scotopic vision Scotopic vision Scotopic vision is the vision of the eye under low-light levels. The term comes from Greek "skotos", meaning "darkness", and "-opia", meaning "a condition of sight". In the human eye, cone cells are nonfunctional in low visible light. Scotopic vision is produced exclusively through rod cells, which are most sensitive to wavelengths of around 498 nm (green–blue) and are insensitive to wavelengths longer than about 640 nm (red). This condition is called the Purkinje effect. Scotopic vision is dominated by retina amacrine cells, specifically AII-amacrine cells. AII-amacrine cells capture rod bipolar cell input and redistribute it to cone
Retina bipolar cell inhibition and become active (depolarized), while the OFF bipolar cell loses its excitation (becomes hyperpolarized) and becomes silent. Rod bipolar cells do not synapse directly on to ganglion cells. Instead, rod bipolar cells synapse on to a Retina amacrine cell, which in turn excite cone ON bipolar cells (via gap junctions) and inhibit cone OFF bipolar cells (via glycine-mediated inhibitory synapses) thereby overtaking the cone pathway in order to send signals to ganglion cells at scotopic (low) ambient light conditions. OFF bipolar cells synapse in the outer layer of the inner plexiform layer of the retina, and ON bipolar cells