Electrophysiological Study of the Mechanisms Subserving Color Coding in the Fish Retina
Abstract
It was demonstrated by Wagner, MacNichol, and Wolbarsht (1960) and by Motokawa, Yamashita, and Ogawa (1960), both working on the cyprinid fish retina, that some ganglion cells respond with an on-discharge to light of shorter wavelengths and an off-discharge to light of longer wavelengths, or vice versa. Obviously, the activity of such ganglion cells is subserved by two opposing processes, excitatory and inhibitory, that predominate at different regions of the spectrum. This type of color coding is reminiscent of Hering's opponent colors theory. At the receptor cell level, on the other hand, the retina seems to be consistent with Young's original predictions. As shown from the result of microspectrophotometry of single goldfish cones by Marks and MacNichol (1963), there are three cone groups, each containing one of three photopigments which is maximally sensitive in a particular region of the spectrum (455, 530, or 625 mµ). The experiment was later extended
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