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Light-Induced Potential and Resistance Changes in Vertebrate Photoreceptors

  • Chapter
Physiology of Photoreceptor Organs

Part of the book series: Handbook of Sensory Physiology ((1536,volume 7 / 2))

Abstract

It has been established from ERG analyses that the cornea-negative component, the Pill of Granit, originates at least in part in the receptors themselves. (Concerning the background and present status of our knowledge, see Chapter 17.) Until just recently, however, a few points still remained to be explained. One of these was the unusual sign of the PIII, first pointed out by Granit (1947). While it is general that a receptor, when excited, forms an electric field of such sign as to make its distal end negative relative to the proximal end, and while this generality applies also to most invertebrate photoreceptors (see Section 7 of this Chapter), the polarity of the PIII is just opposite and is such as to shift the distal margin of the receptors positive, instead of negative. Another point requiring a reasonable account in assigning the PIII to the receptors was the parallel relation between the PIII and inhibition, well established also by Granit (1947). There is a building up of inhibition along with the PIII during photic stimulation, and the sudden destruction of the PIII at the termination of light results in a release of excitation. Does this then mean that the response to light of vertebrate photoreceptors is “inhibitory” in nature?

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tokyo, Japan

    Tsuneo Tomita

  2. New Haven, Connecticut, USA

    Tsuneo Tomita

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  1. Tsuneo Tomita
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Institutes of Health, Room 2C02, Building 36, Bethesda, Maryland, 20014, USA

    M. G. F. Fuortes

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Tomita, T. (1972). Light-Induced Potential and Resistance Changes in Vertebrate Photoreceptors. In: Fuortes, M.G.F. (eds) Physiology of Photoreceptor Organs. Handbook of Sensory Physiology, vol 7 / 2. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65340-7_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65340-7_13

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