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. 1993 Aug;65(2):832–839. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(93)81116-0

The dynamic nonlinear behavior of fly photoreceptors evoked by a wide range of light intensities.

A S French 1, M J Korenberg 1, M Järvilehto 1, E Kouvalainen 1, M Juusola 1, M Weckström 1
PMCID: PMC1225784  PMID: 8218908

Abstract

Fly photoreceptor cells were stimulated with steps of light over a wide intensity range. First- and second-order Volterra kernels were then computed from sequences of combined step responses. Diagonal values of the second-order Volterra kernels were much greater than the off-diagonal values, and the diagonal values were roughly proportional to the corresponding first-order kernels, suggesting that the response could be approximated by a static nonlinearity followed by a dynamic linear component (Hammerstein model). The amplitudes of the second-order kernels were much smaller in light-adapted than in dark-adapted photoreceptors. Hammerstein models constructed from the step input/output measurements gave reasonable approximations to the actual photoreceptor responses, with light-adapted responses being relatively better fitted. However, Hammerstein models could not account for several features of the photoreceptor behavior, including the dependence of the step response shape on step amplitude. A model containing an additional static nonlinearity after the dynamic linear component gave significantly better fits to the data. These results indicate that blowfly photoreceptors have a strong early gain control nonlinearity acting before the processes that create the characteristic time course of the response, in addition to the nonlinearities caused by membrane conductances.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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