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Quantum Relations of the Rat Electroretinogram

The rat retina is uniform and contains almost exclusively rods. Therefore the rat eye, when uniformly illuminated, produces a gross electroretinogram (ERG) which is simply related to the activity of the individual retinal sources of the ERG. Characteristics of ERG's are shown on an intensity sc...

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Autor principal: Cone, Richard A.
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Rockefeller University Press 1963
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2195322/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14043002
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author Cone, Richard A.
author_facet Cone, Richard A.
author_sort Cone, Richard A.
collection PubMed
description The rat retina is uniform and contains almost exclusively rods. Therefore the rat eye, when uniformly illuminated, produces a gross electroretinogram (ERG) which is simply related to the activity of the individual retinal sources of the ERG. Characteristics of ERG's are shown on an intensity scale of the average number of quanta absorbed per rod per stimulus flash obtained by direct accurate measurement of all quantities involved. An independent check on the accuracy of these measurements is applied to pigment-bleaching data reported by Dowling (1963). When ERG characteristics are placed on this scale it is found that: (a) The b-wave can usually be observed when fewer than one out of two hundred rods absorbs a quantum, the threshold being determined by the noise of the preparation. (b) Near threshold the b-wave amplitude is proportional to intensity. (c) The a-wave appears when there are more than two to four absorptions per rod per flash. (d) The b-wave latency decreases with intensity, and the amplitude becomes proportional to the logarithm of intensity when fewer than one out of ten rods absorbs a quantum. This implies that the b-wave sources must combine excitation from more than one rod (probably more than seven). Therefore the b-wave cannot arise from independent rods or rod-bipolar synapses, but probably reflects activity of entire inner nuclear layer cells.
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spelling pubmed-21953222008-04-23 Quantum Relations of the Rat Electroretinogram Cone, Richard A. J Gen Physiol Article The rat retina is uniform and contains almost exclusively rods. Therefore the rat eye, when uniformly illuminated, produces a gross electroretinogram (ERG) which is simply related to the activity of the individual retinal sources of the ERG. Characteristics of ERG's are shown on an intensity scale of the average number of quanta absorbed per rod per stimulus flash obtained by direct accurate measurement of all quantities involved. An independent check on the accuracy of these measurements is applied to pigment-bleaching data reported by Dowling (1963). When ERG characteristics are placed on this scale it is found that: (a) The b-wave can usually be observed when fewer than one out of two hundred rods absorbs a quantum, the threshold being determined by the noise of the preparation. (b) Near threshold the b-wave amplitude is proportional to intensity. (c) The a-wave appears when there are more than two to four absorptions per rod per flash. (d) The b-wave latency decreases with intensity, and the amplitude becomes proportional to the logarithm of intensity when fewer than one out of ten rods absorbs a quantum. This implies that the b-wave sources must combine excitation from more than one rod (probably more than seven). Therefore the b-wave cannot arise from independent rods or rod-bipolar synapses, but probably reflects activity of entire inner nuclear layer cells. The Rockefeller University Press 1963-07-01 /pmc/articles/PMC2195322/ /pubmed/14043002 Text en Copyright © Copyright, 1963, by The Rockefeller Institute Press This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.rupress.org/terms). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 4.0 Unported license, as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Cone, Richard A.
Quantum Relations of the Rat Electroretinogram
title Quantum Relations of the Rat Electroretinogram
title_full Quantum Relations of the Rat Electroretinogram
title_fullStr Quantum Relations of the Rat Electroretinogram
title_full_unstemmed Quantum Relations of the Rat Electroretinogram
title_short Quantum Relations of the Rat Electroretinogram
title_sort quantum relations of the rat electroretinogram
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2195322/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14043002
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