Abstract

The ganglion cells in the goldfish retina may have either “on”-center or “off”-center receptive fields. Evidence is presented to show that for any cell: (1) Under suitable conditions either pure “on” or pure “off” responses can be evoked by small spot stimuli at any point within the receptive field. (2) The sensitivities of both “on” and “off” processes are maximal in the center of the field. (3) The relative sensitivity of these processes is not constant but changes as a function of position in the field. (4) The response evoked by a stimulus of any size and at any location within the receptive field represents the sum of the contributions from both the “on” and “off” processes.

© 1963 Optical Society of America

Electrical Activity in the Vertebrate Retina*

Tsuneo Tomita
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 53(1) 49-57 (1963)

Integrative Processes in Central Visual Pathways of the Cat*

David H. Hubel
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 53(1) 58-66 (1963)

Spatial and Temporal Aspects of Retinal Inhibitory Interaction*†

Floyd Ratliff, H. K. Hartline, and William H. Miller
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 53(1) 110-120 (1963)

On Some Aspects of Real and Apparent Visual Movement*

C. H. Graham
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 53(9) 1019-1025 (1963)

Two-dimensional analysis of retinal information transfer

Alfred L. Ochs and Rolando E. Peinado
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 65(7) 842-846 (1975)