ArticleFrontiers in neural circuits2016
Peripheral Sensory Neurons Expressing Melanopsin Respond to Light.
Article in Frontiers in neural circuits, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 67 citations in OpenAlex.
- Changes in Melanopsin expression in the iris after corneal abrasion in an experimental rat model.Experimental eye research · 2026Article
- Corneal Innervation Research at a Crossroads: A Tool-Driven Roadmap for the Future.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Review
- Topography of Photophobia: Perifoveal Sensitivity Associations in Glaucoma.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Article
- Opposing Roles of OPN3 and OPN5 Affecting the Intrinsic Pupillary Light Reflex of the Mammalian Iris.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Article
- A timeline of structural and functional consequences to ipRGCs in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.Neurobiology of aging · 2026Article
- Effect of Light Wavelength on Corneal Sensitivity.Ophthalmology science · 2026Article
- Light-aversion and cephalic allodynia in an intravenous CGRP model of migraine-like behaviour in male and female rats.The journal of headache and pain · 2026Article
- Non-visual opsins and their role in circadian photoentrainment.Eye and vision (London, England) · 2026Review
- Electrotherapy in the management of neuropathic corneal pain: narrative review.Experimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N.J.) · 2026Review
- Heightened visual light sensitivity discomfort measured by the ocular photosensitivity analyzer is associated with chronic ocular pain.The ocular surface · 2025Article
- Article
- Intravitreally Injected Plasmonic Nanorods Activate Bipolar Cells with Patterned Near-Infrared Laser Projection.ACS nano · 2025Article
- Formoterol dynamically alters endocannabinoid tone in the periaqueductal gray inducing headache.The journal of headache and pain · 2024Article
- Melanopsin in the human and chicken choroid.Experimental eye research · 2024Article
- Defining spatial nonuniformities of all ipRGC types using an improved Opn4Cell reports methods · 2024Article
- A newbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- FL-41 Tint Reduces Activation of Neural Pathways of Photophobia in Patients with Chronic Ocular Pain.American journal of ophthalmology · 2024Article
- Preservation of Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells (ipRGCs) in Late Adult Mice: Implications as a Potential Biomarker for Early Onset Ocular Degenerative Diseases.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2024Article
- Transient and Sustained Ganglion Cell Light Responses Are Differentially Modulated by Intrinsically Produced Reactive Oxygen Species Acting upon Specific Voltage-Gated NaThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Article
- Blue Light-Ocular and Systemic Damaging Effects: A Narrative Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
17 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The ability of light to cause pain is paradoxical. The retina detects light but is devoid of nociceptors while the trigeminal sensory ganglia (TG) contain nociceptors but not photoreceptors. Melanopsin-expressing intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) are thought to mediate light-induced pain but recent evidence raises the possibility of an alternative light responsive pathway independent of the retina and optic nerve. Here, we show that melanopsin is expressed in both human and mouse TG neurons. In mice, they represent 3% of small TG neurons that are preferentially localized in the ophthalmic branch of the trigeminal nerve and are likely nociceptive C fibers and high-threshold mechanoreceptor Aδ fibers based on a strong size-function association. These isolated neurons respond to blue light stimuli with a delayed onset and sustained firing, similar to the melanopsin-dependent intrinsic photosensitivity observed in ipRGCs. Mice with severe bilateral optic nerve crush exhibit no light-induced responses including behavioral light aversion until treated with nitroglycerin, an inducer of migraine in people and migraine-like symptoms in mice. With nitroglycerin, these same mice with optic nerve crush exhibit significant light aversion. Furthermore, this retained light aversion remains dependent on melanopsin-expressing neurons. Our results demonstrate a novel light-responsive neural function independent of the optic nerve that may originate in the peripheral nervous system to provide the first direct mechanism for an alternative light detection pathway that influences motivated behavior.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.