Cone cells, or 

cones, are one of the two types of photoreceptor cells that are in the retina of the
eye which are responsible for color vision as well as eye color sensitivity; they function best in
relatively bright light, as opposed to rod cells that work better in dim light. Cone cells are densely
packed in the fovea centralis a 0.3 mm diameter rod-free area with very thin, densely packed
cones, but quickly reduce in number towards the periphery of the retina. There are about six to
seven million cones in a human eye and are most concentrated towards the macula.

Cones are less sensitive to light than the rod cells in the retina (which support vision at low light
levels), but allowthe perception of colour. They are also able to perceive finer detail and more
rapid changes in images, because their response times to stimuli are faster than those of rods. As
opposed to rods, cones consist one of the three types of pigment namely: S-cones (absorbs blue),
M-cones (absorbs green) and L-cones (absorbs red). Each cone is therefore sensitive to visible
wavelengths of light that correspond to red (long-wavelength), green (medium-wavelength), or
blue (short-wavelength) light.Because humans usually have three kinds of cones with
differentphotopsins, which have different response curves and thus respond to variation in colour
in different ways, we have trichromatic vision. Being colour blind can change this, and there have
been some unverified reports of people with four or more types of cones, giving them
tetrachromatic vision.Destruction to the cone cells from disease would result in blindness.

Cone cells are somewhat shorter than rods, but wider and tapered, and are much less numerous
than rods in most parts of the retina, but greatly outnumber rods in the fovea. Structurally, cone
cells have a cone-like shape at one end where a pigment filters incoming light, giving them their
different response curves. They are typically 40–50 µm long, and their diameter varies from 0.5 to
4.0 µm, being smallest and most tightly packed at the center of the eye at the fovea. The S cones
are a little larger than the others.

Photobleaching can be used to determine cone arrangement. This is done by exposing dark-
adapted retina to a certain wavelength of light that paralyzes the particular type of cone sensitive
to that wavelength for up to thirty minutes from being able to dark-adapt making it appear white in
contrast to the grey dark-adapted cones when a picture of the retina is taken. The results illustrate
that S cones are randomly placed and appear much less frequently than the M and L cones. The
ratio of M and L cones varies greatly among different people with regular vision (e.g. values of
75.8% L with 20.0% M versus 50.6% L with 44.2% M in two male subjects).

Like rods, each cone cell has a synaptic terminal, an inner segment, and an outer segment as well
as an interior nucleus and various mitochondria. The synaptic terminal forms a synapse with a
neuron such as a bipolar cell. The inner and outer segments are connected by a cilium.The inner
segment contains organelles and the cell's nucleus, while the outer segment, which is pointed
toward the back of the eye, contains the light-absorbing materials.

Like rods, the outer segments of cones have invaginations of their cell membranes that create
stacks of membranous disks. Photopigments exist as transmembrane proteins within these disks,
which provide more surface area for light to affect the pigments. In cones, these disks are
attached to the outer membrane, whereas they are pinched off and exist separately in rods.
Neither rods nor cones divide, but their membranous disks wear out and are worn off at the end of
the outer segment, to be consumed and recycled by phagocytic cells.

The response of cone cells to light is also directionally nonuniform, peaking at a direction that
receives light from the center of the pupil; this effect is known as the Stiles–Crawford effect.