Representation of cone signals in the primate retina

Vision begins with specialized retinal circuits that encode diverse types o f information. For Old World primates, these circuits sample three submosai cs formed by cone photoreceptors sensitive to short, middle, and long wavel engths. For spatial acuity, the photon catch between any two cones is compa red for discrimination of patterns as fine as the cone mosaic. For color vi sion, the photon catch between different cone types is compared for discrim ination of fine spectral differences on the basis of hue. The retinal circu its for these two tasks differ at the synaptic level to form distinct repre sentations of signals from the cone mosaic. (C) 2000 Optical Society of Ame rica [S0740-3232(00)00603-7].