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Optic nerve responses to visual stimuli in squid

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Summary

Single unit optic nerve responses were studied in isolated eye-optic lobe preparations ofLoligo opalescens. Units could be classified as fast or slow. Fast units were invariably receptor cell axons; slow units might be either receptor cell axons or centrifugal axons.On, on-off, andoff units could be found within these classes. A given unit was not stable with respect to these latter attributes which depended greatly on the history and level of illumination. The curve which relates quantal content of a brief flash to number of spikes in the response has a logarithmic phase, but it saturates as brightness is increased further. An inhibitory component has been demonstrated following the response to a flash. It is probably responsible for the non-monotonic relationship between frequency and light intensity which is observed for sustained stimuli. Background light or previous illumination can lead to a facilitation of the response to a flash.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosciences, School of Medicine, USA

    Peter H. Hartline & G. David Lange

  2. Marine Neurobiology Unit, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA

    Peter H. Hartline & G. David Lange

Authors
  1. Peter H. Hartline
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  2. G. David Lange
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The authors share equally in credit and responsibility for this paper and for the research reported here. We thank Dr. A. Hurley and Dr. T. H. Bullock for valuable comments and suggestions and L. Ball and S. St. John for technical assistance. This research was supported by PHS grants NS 09342 to GDL and EY 29405 to PHH, by a grant from the Sloan Foundation to the group in Neurosciences at UCSD and NSF grants GB 24816 and GD 28838 to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography for operation of the Alpha Helix Research Program.

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Hartline, P.H., Lange, G.D. Optic nerve responses to visual stimuli in squid. J. Comp. Physiol. 93, 37–54 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00608758

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