Vision: how to catch fast signals with slow detectors.
The visual system is equipped with highly sensitive but slow detectors, yet it can resolve light changes up to 60 Hz. Processes taking place in retinal circuits go beyond the intrinsic limits of the transduction machinery by an unconventional exploitation of voltage-dependent conductances, cleverly lined up to generate a cascade of band-pass amplification stages.
Demontis
Gian Carlo
GC
Dipartimento di Psichiatria e Neurobiologia, Università di Pisa, I-56126 Pisa, Italy.
Cervetto
Luigi
L
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D017948:Retinal Rod Photoreceptor Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*