Sensory maps and brain development the midbrain auditory nucleus had receptive fields independent of nature and intensity of the sound. Roger Sperry proposed a chemical gradient model for eye rotation and for neuronal wiring diagram. Retinal neurons and target cells had identification tags in the form of chemical gradients so that the projection of neurons would be orderly. For a topographic map of the visual world, the map first forms during neural development via molecular signals, such as chemospecific matching between molecular gradients. The molecular basis of sensory maps and brain development is a field that is being actively explored. The most recent work has
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.