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RAPID PHOTORESPONSES IN THE RETINA AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO VISION RESEARCH *
Author(s) -
Pak William L.
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
photochemistry and photobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.818
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1751-1097
pISSN - 0031-8655
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-1097.1968.tb05893.x
Subject(s) - retina , stimulus (psychology) , retinal , neuroscience , vertebrate , excitation , visual pigments , receptor potential , biology , biophysics , physics , receptor , psychology , rhodopsin , cognitive psychology , botany , biochemistry , quantum mechanics , gene
— An intense short flash stimulus gives rise to transient electrical responses of about a millisecond duration from vertebrate and some invertebrate retinas. Some aspects of these rapid retinal responses are reviewed. It is concluded that they probably represent electrical expressions of photochemical events or events closely associated with photochemistry of visual pigment, that they do not represent the excitation of the photoreceptors per se, and that still unidentified, silent processes intervene between them and the excitation of the photo‐receptor. The fact that photochemical events produce movements of charges, which result in these responses, is of interest in itself. Moreover, these responses present us with a relatively simple and effective technique for probing the role of visual pigment in visual excitation in the intact retina.