Journal ArticleDOI
Discharge patterns and functional organization of mammalian retina
TLDR
The Limulus preparation shows many features which are similar to other simple sense organs, for instance, stretch receptors, however, instead of photochemical events, stretch-deformation acts as the adequate stimulus on sensory terminals and is translated into a characteristic discharge pattern.Abstract:
THE DISCHARGES carried in the optic nerve fibers contain all the information which the central nervous system receives from the retina. A correct interpretation of discharge patterns therefore constitutes an important step in the analysis of visual events. Further, investigations of nervous activity arising in the eye reveal many aspects of the functional organization of the neural elements within the retina itself. Following studies of discharges in the optic nerve of the eel’s eye by Adrian and Matthews (2,3), Hartline and his colleagues described the discharge pattern in the eye of the Limulus in a series of important and lucid papers (for a summary see 20). In the Limulus the relationship between the stimulus to the primary receptor cell and the nerve discharges proved relatively simple, apparently because the connection between sense cell and nerve fiber was a direct one. Thus, when stimulation is confined to one receptor the discharge in a single Limulus nerve fiber will provide a good indication of excitatory events which take place as a result of photochemical processes. Discharges last for the duration of illumination and their frequency is a measure of stimulus strength. Lately, however, it was shown by Hartline et al. (22) that inhibitory interactions may be revealed when several receptors are excited. On the whole, the Limulus preparation shows many features which are similar to other simple sense organs, for instance, stretch receptors. In the latter, however, instead of photochemical events, stretch-deformation acts as the adequate stimulus on sensory terminals and is translated into a characteristic discharge pattern. The discharge from the cold-blooded vertebrate retina (mainly frogs) proved much more complex. Hartline found three main types when recording from single optic nerve fibers: (i) “on” discharges, similar to those in the Limulus, firing for the duration of the light stimulus, (ii) “off” discharges appearing when a light stimulus was withdrawn, and (iii) ‘con-off” discharges, a combination of the former two, with activity confined mainly to onset and cessation of illumination. The mammalian discharge patterns were studied in a number of species by Granit and his co-workers in the course of their extensive work on the physiology of the visual system (summaries in 13, 15). On the whole, they did not observe any fundamental differences between frog and mammalian discharge types (see later).read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Receptive fields, binocular interaction and functional architecture in the cat's visual cortex
David H. Hubel,Torsten N. Wiesel +1 more
TL;DR: This method is used to examine receptive fields of a more complex type and to make additional observations on binocular interaction and this approach is necessary in order to understand the behaviour of individual cells, but it fails to deal with the problem of the relationship of one cell to its neighbours.
Journal ArticleDOI
Receptive fields of single neurones in the cat's striate cortex
David H. Hubel,Torsten N. Wiesel +1 more
TL;DR: The present investigation, made in acute preparations, includes a study of receptive fields of cells in the cat's striate cortex, which resembled retinal ganglion-cell receptive fields, but the shape and arrangement of excitatory and inhibitory areas differed strikingly from the concentric pattern found in retinalganglion cells.
Book
The synaptic organization of the brain
TL;DR: Introduction to synaptic circuits, Gordon M.Shepherd and Christof Koch membrane properties and neurotransmitter actions, David A.Brown and Anthony M.Brown.
Journal ArticleDOI
Segregation of form, color, movement, and depth: anatomy, physiology, and perception
TL;DR: Perceptual experiments can be designed to ask which subdivisions of the system are responsible for particular visual abilities, such as figure/ground discrimination or perception of depth from perspective or relative movement--functions that might be difficult to deduce from single-cell response properties.
Journal ArticleDOI
Receptive fields and functional architecture in two nonstriate visual areas (18 and 19) of the cat.
David H. Hubel,Torsten N. Wiesel +1 more
TL;DR: To UNDERSTAND VISION in physiological terms represents a formidable problem for the biologist, and one approach is to stimulate the retina with patterns of light while recording from single cells or fibers at various points along the visual pathway.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
The response of single optic nerve fibers of the vertebrate eye to illumination of the retina
Journal ArticleDOI
Sensory Mechanisms of the Retina
TL;DR: This book is not a general treatise on vision, but in deals with some additions to visual physiology in the last fifteen years that have been derived from the study of action potentials of the retina and the optic nerve, and particularly with work in this field with which the author has been closely associated and in which his laboratory has been notably active.
Journal ArticleDOI
Nerve impulses from single receptors in the eye
Related Papers (5)
Receptive fields, binocular interaction and functional architecture in the cat's visual cortex
David H. Hubel,Torsten N. Wiesel +1 more
The contrast sensitivity of retinal ganglion cells of the cat.
Receptive fields of single neurones in the cat's striate cortex
David H. Hubel,Torsten N. Wiesel +1 more