Dendritic fields of the retinal ganglion cells in the cat.

Abstract

The retinas of 20 cats have been studied using silver impregnation of whole, flat retinal preparations. In the entire retina, including the periphery of the area centralis, a type of giant ganglion has been identified. The extreme of the values for the dendritic field of the giant ganglion cells were 70μ to 700μ; however, a spectrum of sizes between the above values was also found. The dendritic fields were smaller and denser in the vicinity of the area centralis (80/59 mm) where overlapping dendritic fields were often seen. In the periphery of the retina, the dendritic fields were larger, and only one or two giant ganglion cells per square millimeter were found. Although other types of ganglion cells were stained by the above method, they were excluded from consideration in this particular study.