Ganglionic Layer
The Ganglionic Layer is the third (3rd) of the layers forming the retina of the human eye.
Recall that light from outside the human body enters the eye through its main structures of the cornea, aqueous humour, pupil, lens, etc. and is normally focussed onto the retina of the eye.
The retina is composed of several layers which, together, form the "screen" in the eye onto which an image of the area viewed by the eye is formed, and information about that image is segmented into packets of information that are passed to the visual cortex of the brain via the optic nerve.
The ganglionic layer is a single layer of large ganglion
cells that stretches across the whole of the retina. The only exception
to this is in the region of the fovea (also known as the "macula lutea" and as the "yellow spot"), where there are
several strata of these large ganglia instead of the single layer elsewhere
across the retina.
The ganglionic layer can be identified in the small diagram of the retina (at the top-right of this page) as a layer formed from the symbols represented by pale circles with dark centres a short distance upwards from the lower part of the structure illustrated - or see the diagram of the layers of the human retina.
For more information about related subjects see:
- Structure of the human eye
- Structure of the human retina
- What is ophthalmology?
- List of disorders of the human eye
- List of ophthalmic procedures
- Textbooks about ophthalmology
