Receptive Fields of Retinal Ganglion Cells: Extent and Spectral Sensitivity

Abstract

In the preceding paper (9) the response patterns of certain retinal ganglion cells in the goldfish retina were shown to have several modalities; that is, under a given set of conditions the ganglion cell gave spike activity only during retinal illmunination (pure “on” response pattern), but if the conditions were slightly altered it responded only after extinction of the light (pure “off” response pattern), while intermediate circumstances would often evoke both (“on-off” response pattern). The conditions usually adequate to reveal these changes in behaviour were (a) a change in wavelength of the stimulating light, and (b) a change in intensity. One of the ways that the response patterns of these ganglion cells could be color coded was the following: when the wavelength of the stimulus was around 500 mμ there was a pure “on” response; a change to approximately 550 mμ gave an “on-off” response; and 600 mμ and longer wavelengths gave pure “off” responses. These same ganglion cells would also give a pure “on” response to low intensities of a stimulus of 550 mμ, and “on-off” response if the intensity was increased somewhat and a pure “off” response at still higher intensities. These patterns were explained on the basis that the response of the ganglion cell was being governed by two mutually antagonistic influences: one excitatory; the other inhibitory. Presumably these influences converge upon the ganglion cell through independent pathways which have their origin in separate receptor systems of different spectral sensitivities.

From the Physiology Division, Naval Medical Research Institute, National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, and Thomas C. Jenkins Department of Biophysics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private ones of the authors and are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the Navy Department or the naval service at large. The research was supported in part by National Science Foundation Grant G-7086.