Bistratified cell

A small-field bistratified cell, or just bistratified cell, is a retinal ganglion cell whose cell body is located in the ganglion cell layer of the retina. Bistratified cells receive their input from bipolar cells and amacrine cells. The bistratified cells project their axons through the optic nerve and optic tract to the koniocellular layers in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), synapsing with koniocellular cells. Koniocellular means “cells as small as dust”; their small size made them hard to find. About 8 to 10% of retinal ganglion cells are bistratified cells. They receive inputs from intermediate numbers of rods and cones. They have moderate spatial resolution, moderate conduction velocity, and can respond to moderate-contrast stimuli. They may be involved in color vision. They have very large receptive fields that only have centers (no surrounds) and are always ON to the blue cone and OFF to both the red and green cone.