Membrane potential function as a battery, providing power to operate a variety of "molecular devices" embedded in the membrane. Second, in electrically excitable cells such as neurons and muscle cells, it is used for transmitting signals between different parts of a cell. Signals are generated by opening or closing of ion channels at one point in the membrane, producing a local change in the membrane potential. This change in the electric field can be quickly affected by either adjacent or more distant ion channels in the membrane. Those ion channels can then open or close as a result of the potential change,
OPN1LW LWS cone cells into horizontal cells, bipolar cells, amacrine cells, and finally ganglion cells before continuing to the brain via the optic nerve. Ganglion cells compile the signal from the LWS cones with all other cone signals that occurred in response to the light that was seen, and pass the overall signal into the optic nerve. The cones themselves do not process colour, it is the brain that decides what colour is being seen by the signal combination it receives from the ganglion cells. Before humans evolved to be a trichromatic species, our vision was dichromatic and consisted of only