Talk:Rod cell

Orientation of cells
From the article "while the outer segment, which is pointed toward the front of the eye, contains the light-absorbing materials" Don't the cells point away from the front of the eye, from the neural layer into the pigment-containing outer layer? The light has to travel through blood vessels and neurons in the neural layer to get to the rod and cone cells. NoQuarter —Preceding undated comment added 14:56, 14 May 2006‎ (UTC)
 * I agree. It was my understanding that they point away from the center of the eye, and that the light must pass through the neura layer, though the relative size of the neurons makes this quite easy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.100.249.16 (talk) 16:48, 20 July 2006‎ (UTC)

Spectral response
What is the spectral response curve of a rod cell? As I understand it, the CIE color matching functions are approximately the response of the three colors of cones. What would the corresponding curve look like for rods? —Ben FrantzDale 02:17, 10 July 2007 (UTC)


 * There's this figure on the photoreceptor cell page. 75.45.196.160 (talk) 05:13, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

120 or 90 million?
the article about cone cell states there are about 90 million rod cells in the eye, with a citation needed on it. 79.181.128.44 (talk) 15:05, 1 October 2008 (UTC).

Rod cells are rod shaped due to..
Uhm, did somebody leave off editting here? (Under Desensitization) 71.200.46.113 (talk) 22:16, 28 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I looked at the history, and it was basically just vandalism. I undid it. (The same IP later vandalized the page in a more overt way.) 75.45.196.160 (talk) 05:04, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Purkinje effect
"This fact is responsible for the Purkinje effect, in which blue colors appear more intense relative to reds at twilight, when rods take over as the cells responsible for vision." Does it mean that rod cells make blue-green sensation? Or they only give uncolored (white) sensation as I was thought in school? What "more intense" does mean? Do the blue parts appear more bluish in the dark or simply more bright? --MathFacts (talk) 09:14, 14 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Rods' sensibility is centered between green and blue and their signal is interpreted as bluish. This is the reason why at evening and night the world looks more blue. Long exposure night photographs show the same colors we see during the day, see e.g. []. 2003:F5:6F05:2A00:ADA5:8506:2DD2:A1D7 (talk) 16:08, 31 October 2020 (UTC) Marco PB

Number of Retinal Molecules per Rod or Cone Cell
Apparently the Retinal molecule is the primary light-sensitive molecule in animal vision. Does anyone know how many active retinal molecules are present in a single rod cell, or are present in a single cone cell? Frysay (talk) 05:53, 30 May 2014 (UTC)

Fix diagram
The diagram of the rod cell says that there are "membrane shelves lined with rhodposin or colour pigment". First of all, these are disks not shelves. Check the literature. Second of all, diagrams should have brief labels not sentences. "Discs containing rhodopsin" is quite sufficient. "Colour pigment" adds nothing to the diagram. If people want to know what rhodopsin is, they can easily look it up.

Sorry if I sound like I'm griping. I do appreciate those who make these public domain images. Lehasa (talk) 19:04, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

Last figure: Caption appears in conflict with label on vertical axis
The caption for the last figure designates "Wavelength responsiveness:, while the vertical axis reads "absorbance". These are different concepts. Certainly absorption of light by the sensor cell is necessary for a neuronal response, but is insufficient. Compare this figure with the first figure of Spectral sensitivity, where the shapes of the three curves for cone cells appears to be different, but similar to the scotopic curve in the first figure of Luminosity function.  Layzeeboi (talk) 03:04, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Role of rod cells in photopic (daytime) vision?
Neither this article nor the Article Photopic vision gives a clear answer to the question whether rod cells play any (supportive) role in photopic (daytime) vision or whether they're basically inactive under well-lit conditions. Please add. -- 194.39.218.10 (talk) 08:53, 30 November 2021 (UTC)