Wie die Lichtwahrnehmung unsere innere Uhr beeinflusst: (How photoreception affects our inner clock).

Abstract

In addition to the rods and cones, the melanopsin-containing intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGC) are responsible for encoding ambient illumination conditions. The main task of the ipRGC is to signal information about illumination to the brain. Via the retinohypothalamic pathway, light synchronises our internal biological clock and sets it to follow the environment's light-dark cycle. Light is the most important zeitgeber for our inner clock and the ipRGC are therefore highly important for the field of chronobiology. Many ocular and retinal functions also follow a diurnal rhythm. Chrono-ophthalmology is an emerging research field at the interface between the eye and the clock.