ReviewThe Journal of physiology2016
Why are rods more sensitive than cones?
Review in The Journal of physiology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 78 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
78 citing papers in PubMed.
- Enhanced chromatin compaction is associated with de novo expression of a nuclear microprotein, global loss of H3 acetylation and local transcriptional changes in retinal rod photoreceptors.Research square · 2026Article
- AAV-mediated age- and circuit-dependent restoration of photoreceptor synaptic structure and function in α2δ4-associated retinal synaptopathy.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- E122Q rhodopsin: pigment microspectrophotometry, photoreceptor light responses, and bleaching adaptation.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Article
- Cerebral Hypoperfusion Causes Behavioral Changes and Impairs the Rod Photoreceptor Pathway in the Retina of Aged Mice.Cellular and molecular neurobiology · 2026Article
- A Mouse Photoreceptor Proteome Resource Identifies PALS2/MPP6 as a Novel Pan-Cone Photoreceptor Marker.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2025Article
- On the physiological processes underlying optoretinography [Invited].Biomedical optics express · 2025Review
- Adaptations of the Vertebrate Retina to Low-Light Conditions: A Review.Anatomia, histologia, embryologia · 2025Review
- The Role of the CaThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Light-eye-body axis: exploring the network from retinal illumination to systemic regulation.Theranostics · 2025Review
- Molecular characterization of the sea lamprey retina illuminates the evolutionary origin of retinal cell types.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Dark continuous noise from visual pigment as a major mechanism underlying rod-cone difference in light sensitivity.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Biophysical neural adaptation mechanisms enable artificial neural networks to capture dynamic retinal computation.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Light-evoked deformations in rod photoreceptors, pigment epithelium and subretinal space revealed by prolonged and multilayered optoretinography.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Ancient origin of the rod bipolar cell pathway in the vertebrate retina.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- Article
- Multiple rod layers increase the speed and sensitivity of vision in nocturnal reef fishes.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Analysis of dim-light responses in rod and cone photoreceptors with altered calcium kinetics.Journal of mathematical biology · 2023Article
- Ancient origin of the rod bipolar cell pathway in the vertebrate retina.Research square · 2023Article
- Ancient origin of the rod bipolar cell pathway in the vertebrate retina.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Ultrastructural Characteristics and Synaptic Connectivity of Photoreceptors in the Simplex Retina of Little Skate (eNeuro · 2023Article
18 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
One hundred and fifty years ago Max Schultze first proposed the duplex theory of vision, that vertebrate eyes have two types of photoreceptor cells with differing sensitivity: rods for dim light and cones for bright light and colour detection. We now know that this division is fundamental not only to the photoreceptors themselves but to the whole of retinal and visual processing. But why are rods more sensitive, and how did the duplex retina first evolve? Cells resembling cones are very old, first appearing among cnidarians; the emergence of rods was a key step in the evolution of the vertebrate eye. Many transduction proteins have different isoforms in rods and cones, and others are expressed at different levels. Moreover rods and cones have a different anatomy, with only rods containing membranous discs enclosed by the plasma membrane. These differences must be responsible for the difference in absolute sensitivity, but which are essential? Recent research particularly expressing cone proteins in rods or changing the level of expression seem to show that many of the molecular differences in the activation and decay of the response may have each made a small contribution as evolution proceeded stepwise with incremental increases in sensitivity. Rod outer-segment discs were not essential and developed after single-photon detection. These experiments collectively provide a new understanding of the two kinds of photoreceptors and help to explain how gene duplication and the formation of rod-specific proteins produced the duplex retina, which has remained remarkably constant in physiology from amphibians to man.
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