Summary
Intracellular light-evoked potentials were measured from both visual cells and secondary neurons (monopolar neurons type I) in the eye of Calliphora at varying angles of light-incidence. From these measurements and from the characteristic curves we obtained a relationship between the effective light intensity and the angle of incidence of the light stimulus for both cell types. These curves must be identical for the two cell types in the absence of a lateral information processing as a theoretical reflection shows. From the experimental results that the curve (effective light intensity versus light angle of incidence) of the monopolar neurons was considerably narrower as that of the visual cells, it was concluded that a lateral inhibition in the first optic ganglion of the fly retina exists. Although the information coding in the secondary neurons of the fly retina was completely different (graded potentials) from that of corresponding neurons in the Limulus eye (spikes), it appeared that the same principles of information processing existed in both instances.
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This paper is dedicated to Professor H. Autrum on his 65th birthday.
Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. We wish to thank Dr. R. E. Baker for translating the German manuscript into English.
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Zettler, F., Järvilehto, M. Lateral inhibition in an insect eye. Z. Vergl. Physiol. 76, 233–244 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00303230
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00303230