Q.Differentiate between rod and cone cells.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Rods handle dim-light, black-and-white vision using rhodopsin, while cones handle bright-light, colour vision using iodopsin and are concentrated at the fovea.
The retina of the eye contains two types of photoreceptor cells, both named for their shape. Rod cells are rod-shaped, highly numerous (about 120 million in each human eye), and are distributed mainly over the peripheral parts of the retina, being largely absent from the central fovea. They contain a single photopigment called rhodopsin (visual purple), which is extremely sensitive to light and allows rods to function even in very dim light (scotopic/night vision), but rods cannot distinguish colours — they give only shades of grey (black-and-white) vision, and their images are comparatively less sharp. Cone cells are cone-shaped, far fewer in number (about 6-7 million in each eye), and are concentrated most densely at the fovea centralis, the central point of sharpest vision, becoming sparser toward the periphery. Cones contain the photopigment iodopsin and exist as three distinct types, each maximally sensitive to red, green, or blue wavelengths of light; their combined activity allows colo …
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