Delayed decay of the late receptor potential of monkey cones as a function of stimulus intensity

Abstract

The late receptor potential of cones decays rapidly, while that of rods decays very slowly. In response to intense brief stimuli, the decay of the cone response occurs after a delay; the amount of delay is approximately linear with the logarithm of stimulus intensity. Similar results have been obtained for the entire d-wave, which is the off-response in the electroretinogram of macaque monkeys. Since the rising phase of the d-wave is due to decay of the cone late receptor potential, while the falling phase is due to decay of a response from the inner nuclear layer, this suggests that decay of the cone late receptor potential can trigger off-responses from second order neurons.