Scotopic Vision: 3D Retinal Cell Map

Illumination

Ambient light level 0.50

Photoreceptor State

Cone activity

Rod activity

Rhodopsin recovered

100%

Time since flash

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Rod cells (modeled)

Cone cells (modeled)

Cones — color vision, packed in the fovea
Rods — mono, night vision, periphery only
Dark central patch = rod-free fovea

How it works

The retina holds two photoreceptor populations with opposite jobs. Cones handle color vision in bright light (photopic) and are packed almost exclusively into the tiny foveal pit at the center of gaze; rods handle dim-light (scotopic) vision, are far more light-sensitive, and are distributed across the periphery — but are entirely absent from the fovea's center, which is why a faint star vanishes when you stare straight at it and reappears in peripheral vision. As ambient light falls, vision hands off from cone-dominated to rod-dominated processing, and peak spectral sensitivity shifts from yellow-green toward blue-green — the Purkinje shift, visualized here in the scene lighting. A sudden bright flash bleaches rhodopsin, the rod photopigment, knocking rods offline; full sensitivity only returns after dark adaptation, which biologically takes 20–30 minutes and is compressed here into a fast recovery timer so the effect is visible in real time.

drag = orbit · scroll = zoom · cells = 0

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