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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
. 1991 May 1;88(9):3787–3791. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.9.3787

DL-2-amino-4-phosphonobutyric acid does not eliminate "ON" responses in the visual system of goldfish.

P J DeMarco Jr 1, J Bilotta 1, M K Powers 1
PMCID: PMC51538  PMID: 2023929

Abstract

DL-2-Amino-4-phosphonobutyric acid (APB) suppresses activity in retinal ON pathways. It is generally assumed that loss of the ON pathway would result in loss of ON responses in the visual system. We tested this assumption by recording activity from the optic nerves of intact goldfish (Carassius auratus) before and after intraocular injection of APB. Whole-nerve responses to increments and decrements of light were compared to electroretinogram responses and to tectal evoked potentials. APB severely reduced the amplitude of the electroretinogram b-wave but left ON and OFF responses from the optic nerve and tectum intact, although decreased in sensitivity. We conclude that APB does not completely eliminate ON responses in the visual system, at least in goldfish. The selectivity and effectiveness of APB must be evaluated in other species before this agent can be relied upon as a useful tool in understanding the roles of ON and OFF pathways in visual function.

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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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