title: Temporal relationship between the ERG and geniculate unit activity in rabbit: influence of background luminance.
abstract: The comparative analysis of the retinal and lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) intensity-response function revealed that the timing of the LGN unit response was highly correlated to that of one oscillatory potential (OP2). To examine if this OP2-LGN intensity-response function was retained irrespective of the state of retinal adaptation, we performed simultaneous recordings to the ERG and single-cell unit activity at the geniculate level evoked to a flash of constant energy while the level of background luminence was varied. For a stimulus of 6.7 cd m-2 sec, the shifts in latency induced by increasing the background luminance from 0 to 125 cd m-2 are of 1.17 +/- 0.61 msec for OP2, a value almost identical (P greater than 0.10; n = 36) to the one obtained at the geniculate level (1.11 +/- 0.88 msec). However, when a dimmer flash is used, the latency shifts are not so well correlated. The latter could be partly explained by the threshold nature of the resulting stimulus (i.e. high photopic background combined with a dim flash).
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, McGill University-Montreal Children's Hospital, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lachapelle
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Benoit
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cheema
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Molotchnikoff
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000221:Adaptation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D004596:Electroretinography; D005829:Geniculate Bodies / Q000502:physiology*; D008029:Lighting; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D010783:Photometry; D011817:Rabbits; D012160:Retina / Q000502:physiology*