Suppression of maintained activity of retinal ganglion cells

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

1-1-1979

Journal

Vision Research

Volume

19

Issue

4

DOI

10.1016/0042-6989(79)90112-3

Keywords

cat; primate; retinal ganglion cells; suppression of discharge; sustained; transient

Abstract

Recordings were made of the changes in unit discharge rates of on-center and off-center retinal ganglion cells when the luminance of a spot in the receptive field was increased or decreased from a background level. A prolonged suppression of maintained activity to background illumination was observed in both transient and sustained cells of cat and monkey. On-units decreased in rate when the luminance of the spot was reduced: off-units decreased in rate when the luminance of the spot was increased. Long duration silence of maintained activity was dependent upon spot size, position and luminance. The most effective spots covered only the receptive field center. With low contrast levels a response time course was found which did not follow a recovery back to maintained rate along a single exponential function. Increasing contrast silenced a progressively greater proportion of retinal ganglion cells. © 1979.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS