title: Modulating wavelength discrimination in goldfish with ethambutol and stimulus intensity.
abstract: Wavelength discrimination in goldfish was measured behaviourally. Both acute application of ethambutol injected into the eye and chronic application by feeding the animals daily 25 mg ethambutol for 1 month had the same effect on wavelength discrimination in the range of 560-640 nm. This means that: (1) electrophysiological experiments, in which drug application is primarily acute, reflect the same disturbance as behavioural experiments, in which drug application is chronic; and that (2) the origin of the color vision defect must be retinal. Furthermore reduction in stimulus intensity by 2 log units caused, in control fish, a similar disturbance in wavelength discrimination as induced by ethambutol, whereas an increase of stimulus intensity by 2 log units abolished in ethambutol-fed fish the discrimination disturbance. These results indicate that ethambutol shifts the threshold for wavelength discrimination without changing the absolute sensitivity of the cone systems.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School Neurosciences Amsterdam, The Netherlands Ophthalmic Research Institute, Laboratory for Medical Physics, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sjoerdsma
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kamermans
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Spekreijse
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004977:Ethambutol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006054:Goldfish / Q000502:physiology*; D013053:Spectrophotometry
chemical_list: D004977:Ethambutol