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. 1974 Nov;242(3):729–758. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1974.sp010732

Changes in time scale and sensitivity in turtle photoreceptors

D A Baylor, A L Hodgkin
PMCID: PMC1330660  PMID: 4449053

Abstract

1. In turtle cones the steady-state relation between the internal potential and log light intensity was much flatter in the steady state than it was at 30 msec after the beginning of a step of light; this is attributed to a desensitization which develops with a delay of 50-100 msec.

2. When a weak flash was superposed on a steady background light which hyperpolarized the cone by 3-6 mV the amplitude of the linear response to a flash was reduced to 1/e and the time to maximum was shortened from about 110 to 70 msec; the response also became diphasic. With stronger background lights the flash sensitivity continued to fall, but the time to maximum did not become shorter than 40-50 msec and lengthened again with very strong lights.

3. In cones the flash sensitivity SF was reduced to half its dark value SFD by a light intensity of 1/SFDζ where ζ is about 20 sec/V.

4. At low levels of background light, about two-thirds of the change in sensitivity was time-dependent and one-third was attributable to the `instantaneous non-linearity' described in the previous paper.

5. The reduction in time to peak and the decrease in sensitivity produced by a background light which hyperpolarized by about 3 mV was little affected by changing the diameter of the area illuminated from 12 to 800 μm.

6. An experiment with a rod showed that a very weak light which hyperpolarized by only 0·5 mV decreased the linear response to 1/e and shortened the time to maximum from 300 to 180 msec.

7. With weak or moderate flashes the time-dependent desensitization lagged behind the potential by 50-100 msec.

8. The desensitization and shortening of time scale which persisted after a flash or step were associated with an after-hyperpolarization. The relaxation of potential, sensitivity and time scale became slower as the preceding illumination was increased from 103 to 1010 photons μm-2; the increase seemed to occur in steps involving components which relaxed with time constants of the order of 0·1, 1, 10 and 100 sec. A rebound phenomenon was observed after steps longer than 30 sec and with equivalent intensities greater than 105 photons μm-2 sec-1.

9. Several of the observations are explained by a hypothesis in which the central assumption is that the particles which block the ionic channels are degraded or removed by an autocatalytic reaction.

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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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