Skip to main content
PMC home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1988 Jun;85(12):4534–4537. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.12.4534

Background light and the contrast gain of primate P and M retinal ganglion cells.

K Purpura 1, E Kaplan 1, R M Shapley 1
PMCID: PMC280465  PMID: 3380804

Abstract

Retinal ganglion cells projecting to the monkey lateral geniculate nucleus fall into two classes: those projecting to the magnocellular layers of the nucleus (M cells) have a higher contrast gain to luminance patterns at photopic levels of retinal illumination than those projecting to the parvocellular layers (P cells). We report here that this difference in luminance contrast gain between M and P cells is maintained at low levels of mean retinal illumination. In fact, our results suggest that in the mesopic and scotopic ranges of mean illumination, the M-cell/magnocellular pathway is the predominant conveyor of information about spatial contrast to the visual cortex.

Full text

PDF
4534

Selected References

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

  1. Barlow H. B., Levick W. R. Three factors limiting the reliable detection of light by retinal ganglion cells of the cat. J Physiol. 1969 Jan;200(1):1–24. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1969.sp008679. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Cleland B. G., Enroth-Cugell C. Quantitative aspects of gain and latency in the cat retina. J Physiol. 1970 Jan;206(1):73–91. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1970.sp008998. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. De Monasterio F. M., Gouras P. Functional properties of ganglion cells of the rhesus monkey retina. J Physiol. 1975 Sep;251(1):167–195. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1975.sp011086. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Derrington A. M., Lennie P. Spatial and temporal contrast sensitivities of neurones in lateral geniculate nucleus of macaque. J Physiol. 1984 Dec;357:219–240. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1984.sp015498. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Enroth-Cugell C., Lennie P., Shapley R. M. Surround contribution to light adaptation in cat retinal ganglion cells. J Physiol. 1975 Jun;247(3):579–588. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1975.sp010948. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Enroth-Cugell C., Robson J. G. The contrast sensitivity of retinal ganglion cells of the cat. J Physiol. 1966 Dec;187(3):517–552. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1966.sp008107. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Enroth-Cugell C., Shapley R. M. Adaptation and dynamics of cat retinal ganglion cells. J Physiol. 1973 Sep;233(2):271–309. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1973.sp010308. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Gielen C. C., van Gisbergen J. A., Vendrik A. J. Reconstruction of cone-system contributions to responses of colour-opponent neurones in monkey lateral geniculate. Biol Cybern. 1982;44(3):211–221. doi: 10.1007/BF00344277. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Gouras P., Link K. Rod and cone interaction in dark-adapted monkey ganglion cells. J Physiol. 1966 May;184(2):499–510. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1966.sp007928. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Gouras P. The effects of light-adaptation on rod and cone receptive field organization of monkey ganglion cells. J Physiol. 1967 Oct;192(3):747–760. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1967.sp008328. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Hochstein S., Shapley R. M. Quantitative analysis of retinal ganglion cell classifications. J Physiol. 1976 Nov;262(2):237–264. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1976.sp011594. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Kaplan E., Shapley R. M. The primate retina contains two types of ganglion cells, with high and low contrast sensitivity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Apr;83(8):2755–2757. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.8.2755. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Sakmann B., Creutzfeldt O. D. Scotopic and mesopic light adaptation in the cat's retina. Pflugers Arch. 1969;313(2):168–185. doi: 10.1007/BF00586245. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Schiller P. H., Malpeli J. G. Properties and tectal projections of monkey retinal ganglion cells. J Neurophysiol. 1977 Mar;40(2):428–445. doi: 10.1152/jn.1977.40.2.428. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Scobey R. P. Movement sensitivity of retinal ganglion cells in monkey. Vision Res. 1981;21(2):181–190. doi: 10.1016/0042-6989(81)90112-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Valeton J. M., van Norren D. Light adaptation of primate cones: an analysis based on extracellular data. Vision Res. 1983;23(12):1539–1547. doi: 10.1016/0042-6989(83)90167-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Virsu V., Lee B. B., Creutzfeldt O. D. Mesopic spectral responses and the Purkinje shift of macaque lateral geniculate nucleus cells. Vision Res. 1987;27(2):191–200. doi: 10.1016/0042-6989(87)90181-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Virsu V., Lee B. B. Light adaptation in cells of macaque lateral geniculate nucleus and its relation to human light adaptation. J Neurophysiol. 1983 Oct;50(4):864–878. doi: 10.1152/jn.1983.50.4.864. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Wiesel T. N., Hubel D. H. Spatial and chromatic interactions in the lateral geniculate body of the rhesus monkey. J Neurophysiol. 1966 Nov;29(6):1115–1156. doi: 10.1152/jn.1966.29.6.1115. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. de Monasterio F. M. Properties of concentrically organized X and Y ganglion cells of macaque retina. J Neurophysiol. 1978 Nov;41(6):1394–1417. doi: 10.1152/jn.1978.41.6.1394. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES