title: Spatial consequences of bleaching adaptation in cat retinal ganglion cells.
abstract: 1. Experiments were conducted to study the effects of localized bleaching on the centre responses of rod-driven cat retinal ganglion cells. 2. Stimulation as far as 2 degrees from the bleaching site yielded responses which were reduced nearly as much as those generated at the bleaching site. Bleaching in the receptive field middle reduced responsiveness at a site 1 degrees peripheral more than bleaching at that peripheral site itself. 3. The effectiveness of a bleach in reducing centre responsiveness is related to the sensitivity of the region in which the bleach is applied. 4. Response reduction after a 0.2 degree bleach followed the same temporal pattern for concentric test spots of from 0.2 to 1.8 degrees in diameter, implying a substantially uniform spread of adaptation within these bounds. 5. A linear trade-off between fraction of rhodopsin and area bleached over a range of 8:1 yields the same pattern of response reduction, implying that the non-linear nature of bleaching adaptation is a property of the adaptation pool rather than independent photoreceptors.
mesh_terms: D000221:Adaptation, Ocular; D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D008027:Light; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D012160:Retina / Q000166:cytology*; D012243:Rhodopsin / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D012243:Rhodopsin