CELLULAR NEUROPHYSIOLOGY OF THE VERTEBRATE RETINA

视网膜光感受器位于大脑和视网膜之间的界面， 视觉世界。 他们的任务是视觉的核心：翻译 将光能转化为电信号，然后沿着 并由神经系统中的其他细胞进行分析。 一个 了解光感受器如何完成这一重要任务， 对于人类视觉的理解是必要的， 拟议研究计划中的实验将侧重于 在所述电介质内产生电信号的机制 光感受器 单个离子的基本性质 也将研究电信号的基础通道 细胞内化学物质对通道的门控 信使，环磷酸鸟苷，这是由 光 在这些实验中， 技术将被用来测量离子电流流动 通过一个单一的开放通道，无论是在一个完整的细胞或在一个 切除的一片质膜。 的另一个重要步骤 视觉是电信号的传输， 视网膜中的其他神经元的光感受器;这通过 化学突触传递，但是 光感受器释放的神经递质是未知的。 其他实验将旨在确定这一点 从两个杆的突触末梢释放的神经递质 和视锥细胞。

Retinal photoreceptors sit at the interface between the brain and the visual world. Their task is central to vision: the translation of light energy into an electrical signal that can be passed along and analyzed by other cells in the nervous system. An understanding of how photoreceptors accomplish this vital task is requisite for understanding of human vision, and a number of experiments in the proposed research plan will focus on the mechanism of generation of the electrical signal within the photoreceptors. Fundamental properties of individual ion channels that underlie the electrical signal will be studied, as well as the gating of the channels by the intracellular chemical messenger, cyclic guanosine monophosphate, that is modulated by light. In these experiments, a sensitive electrical recording technique will be used to measure the ionic current flowing through a single open channel, either in an intact cell or in an excised patch of plasma membrane. Another important step in vision is the transmission of the electrical signal in the photoreceptors to other neurons in the retina; this occurs via chemical synaptic transmission, but the identity of the neurotransmitter released by the photoreceptors is unknown. Other experiments will be aimed at the identification of this neurotransmitter released from the synaptic terminals of both rod and cone photoreceptors.