A
retinal ganglion cell (RGC) is a type of
neuron located near the inner surface (the
ganglion cell layer) of the
retina of the
eye. It receives visual information from
photoreceptors via two intermediate neuron types:
bipolar cells and
retina amacrine cells. Retina amacrine cells, particularly narrow field cells, are important for creating functional subunits within the ganglion cell layer and making it so that ganglion cells can observe a small dot moving a small distance. Retinal ganglion cells collectively transmit image-forming and non-image forming visual information from the retina in the form of
action potential to several regions in the
thalamus,
hypothalamus, and
mesencephalon, or
midbrain.