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Spectral sensitivity of monocularly deprived cats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

Zijiang J. He  and
Michael S. Loop
Zijiang J. He
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge
Michael S. Loop
Affiliation:
Department of Physiological Optics, School of Optometry, University of Alabama at Birmingham
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Abstract

The reports of rod-dominated psychophysical spectral sensitivity from the deprived eye of monocularly lid-sutured (MD) monkeys are intriguing but difficult to reconcile with the absence of any reported deprivation effects in retina. As most studies of MD retina have been from cat, we have examined psychophysically the increment threshold spectral sensitivity of MD cats using both reaction time and simultaneous two-choice behavioral procedures. Although the deprived eyes exhibited an absolute increment threshold sensitivity deficit, both rod and cone spectral sensitivity functions were obtained on large white backgrounds. This normal transition from rod to cone vision, as background luminance increased, was also found in threshold vs. intensity functions. Using their deprived eye, some cats exhibited a rod spectral sensitivity function when a smaller, normally photopic, background was used providing some support for a hypothesis that the rod-dominated spectral sensitivity observed in monkey may represent detection of scattered stimulus light. Alternatively monocular deprivation may reveal a rod-dominated mechanism which exists in monkey but not in cat.

Keywords

Visual deprivationCatSpectral sensitivityThreshold vs. intensity
Type
Research Article
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 9 , Issue 6 , December 1992 , pp. 617 - 622
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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