Where are the receptors for vision located?

The retina in the back of your eye contains rods and cones. Rods allow us to differentiate between black and white, or light and dark. Cones allow us to distinguish between colors. The periphery of our vision is composed mainly of rods and the central part of out vision is composed mainly of cones. The fovea is a small indentation in the retina, directly in the center of our vision. It is composed of only densely packed cones. This is the reason why we often have a hard time seeing something in the dark unless we look slightly away from it.