Effect of variations of target location upon the peripheral responses of on-center retinal ganglion cells in the cat

Abstract

Annuli of constant area but differing in distance from the receptive field center, were used to study the characteristics of the receptive field periphery of single on-center retinal ganglion cells. Two types of on-center cells were encountered. One type gave responses that reflected characteristics of both the receptive center response mechanism and the receptive field surround response mechanism. An on-off response was observed for annuli anywhere in the receptive field periphery. The strength of all components of the on-off response decreased towards the outer edge receptive field. A second group of cells gave an on-off response for targets near the receptive field center but this mixed response changed to an off response as the annulus was moved to a greater distance from the receptive field center. The off response decreased in strength as the outer edge of the receptive field was approached. The shape of the off response did not vary (within defined limits) with changes in either intensity or annulus distance.