title: Intensity coding in primate visual system.
abstract: The pupil reflex and the discharge of LGN cells of the awake macaque were measured under stimulus conditions that yielded evidence for wide-range intensity coding in human psychophysical experiments. Ganzfeld flashes of white light were delivered under dark-adapted conditions to the surgically immobilized eye of the monkey while the other eye was observed in the infrared. Three-sec flashes elicited a consensual pupil reflex that was graded from -8 to 0 log Lamberts (L), indicating that the optic nerve fibers are capable of coding at least an 8 log-unit range of light intensity. In the physiological experiments, shorter flashes (0.1-0.5 sec) but otherwise identical conditions elicited monotonically graded responses from one type of LGN cell over the photopic range of -5 to 0 log L. Responses from other types of LGN cells were also graded over wide ranges but had different thresholds and, in some cases, nonmonotonic intensity-response functions. Latency of the excitatory LGN responses decreased with increasing intensity according to a power function with slope of-0.08. The pupil reflex and the LGN cell excitatory responses approximate power functions of light intensity with exponents of 0.22 and 0.14-0.29 respectively. The range of intensity coding found for single LGN cells is the widest yet reported for diffuse stimuli.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005829:Geniculate Bodies / Q000502:physiology*; D000882:Haplorhini; D008251:Macaca / Q000502:physiology*; D008252:Macaca fascicularis / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009431:Neural Conduction; D009900:Optic Nerve / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D012025:Reflex, Pupillary; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*