title: Filtering effect of cone oil droplets detected in the P-III response spectra of Japanese quail.
abstract: While absorption spectra of bird cone visual pigments have been well studied, physiological study of bird cone cells has been less advanced owing to their small sizes. We measured the P-III components of electroretinograms (ERG) from isolated retinas of Japanese quail. We recorded responses to monochromatic flashes of equal photon numbers, and found that the shape of the response spectrum is dependent on the incident direction of the flashes. The spectrum obtained with the flashes from the cornea side had a steeper peak around 500 nm than that with flashes from the receptor side. This is clear electrophysiological evidence of the filtering effect of the oil droplets in the cone cells, which has long been suspected. We analyzed these spectra with respect to the absorption spectra of cone pigments and transmittance spectra of oil droplets.
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Network Science, Graduate School for Information Systems, University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kawamuro
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Irie
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakamura
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003370:Coturnix / Q000502:physiology*; D003623:Dark Adaptation; D004596:Electroretinography; D009821:Oils; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D017949:Retinal Cone Photoreceptor Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D012168:Retinal Pigments / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D009821:Oils; D012168:Retinal Pigments