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Electrical inhibition in the retina of the butterflyPapilio

I. Four spectral types of photoreceptors

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Summary

  1. 1.

    Four spectral types of photoreceptors have been characterized by double electrode recordings, with one electrode inside the cell and the other immediately outside. The colour types are: UV — peak sensitivity at 390 nm, blue — 450 nm, green — 540 nm and red — 610 nm. Recordings from the red receptors presented here are the first complete electrophysiological confirmations of the microspectrophotometrically measured red receptors in the retina of butterflies (Bernard 1979).

  2. 2.

    Differential recording (extracellular subtracted from intracellular) shows that the hyperpolarizing afterpotential (HAP) is eliminated when a unit is stimulated at peak wavelength, and greatly reduced during off-peak stimulation. This implies that the HAP is at least partially due to passive lateral electrical inhibition, in addition to the ionic conductance changes previously postulated.

  3. 3.

    The change from a point source stimulus to a diffuse extended source increases both the extracellular and the intracellular hyperpolarizations (at off-peak wavelengths), and reduces the intracellular depolarization, but differential recordings show that the transmembrane potential does not change.

  4. 4.

    The existence of the secondary peak (UV) in green-peak cells and its changes in response to various stimuli are adequately explained by a rhodopsin with a β-peak and by interactions between the photoreceptors.

  5. 5.

    Differential recording brings most of the spectral sensitivities to the curves predicted by the Dartnall nomograms. The remaining discrepancies can be attributed to the inadequacy of the placement of the extracellular electrode.

  6. 6.

    A model of electrical lateral inhibition is presented that accounts for the observed effects. The model is an extended version of the one presented by Shaw (1975).

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Abbreviations

AP :

afterpotential

DA :

dark adapted

DAP :

depolarizing afterpotential

ERG :

electroretinogram

HAP :

hyperpolarizing afterpotential

LA :

light adapted

LMC :

large monopolar cell

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurobiology, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, P.O. Box 475, 2601, Canberra, A.C.T., Australia

    Tomislav Matić

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  1. Tomislav Matić
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Matić, T. Electrical inhibition in the retina of the butterflyPapilio . J. Comp. Physiol. 152, 169–182 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00611182

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