Responses of Primate Retinal Ganglion Cells to Perimetric Stimuli

Perimetry is used clinically to assess glaucomatous ganglion cell loss. It has been proposed that frequency-doubling stimuli are better than the conventional size III perimetric stimulus in preferentially stimulating magnocellular (M) versus parvocellular (P) ganglion cells. However, little is known about how primate ganglion cells respond to perimetric stimuli. The authors recorded contrast responses of M and P ganglion cells to size III and frequency-doubling stimuli and compared contrast gain of M and P cells to these stimuli to assess the ability of these stimuli to preferentially stimulate M versus P cells.