Retinal summation describes the relationship between different types of cells in the retina

Retina

The vertebrate retina is a light-sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical...

: cone photoreceptor cells

Cone cell

Cone cells, or cones, are photoreceptor cells in the retina of the eye that are responsible for color vision; they function best in relatively bright light, as opposed to rod cells that work better in dim light. If the retina is exposed to an intense visual stimulus, a negative afterimage will be...

, bipolar cells, and ganglion cells. With high retinal summation, a large number of photoreceptor cells converge on a smaller number of bipolar cells in transferring their signals to ganglion cells. Zero summation occurs when each cone photoreceptor cell contacts a single ganglion cell via a single bipolar cell.

High summation increases sensitivity to light at the expense of visual acuity

Visual acuity

Visual acuity is acuteness or clearness of vision, which is dependent on the sharpness of the retinal focus within the eye and the sensitivity of the interpretative faculty of the brain....

. Low retinal summation results in high visual acuity, with individual photoreceptor cells sending their own signals. High retinal summation yields high sensitivity to low light levels, where the signal is summed before reaching the brain—presumably advantageous when the signals reaching individual photoreceptor cells are weak.

High retinal summation is an adaptation to low light levels, and low retinal summation to high light levels (thus sharpening the images).