When the Japanese quail is held in constant darkness, retinal responses (ERG b-waves) increase during the animal's subjective night and decrease during its subjective day. Rod photoreceptors dominate the b-wave responses (lambdamax = 506 nm) to all stimulus intensities at night but only to those intensities below the cone threshold during the day. Above the cone threshold, cones dominate b-wave responses (lambdamax, approximately 550-600 nm) during the day regardless of the state of retinal adaptation. Apparently a circadian oscillator enables cone signals to block rod signals during the day but not at night. The ERG b-wave reflects the activity of bipolar cells that are postsynaptic to rods and cones. The ERG a-wave reflects the activity of both rods and cones. The amplitude of the isolated a-wave (PIII) changes with time of day, as does that of the b-wave, but its spectral sensitivity does not. The PIII responses are maximal at approximately 520 nm both day and night and may reflect multiple receptor mechanisms. The shift in rod-cone dominance detected with the ERG b-wave resembles the Purkinje shift of human vision but, unlike the Purkinje shift, does not require a change in ambient light intensity. The shift occurs in constant darkness, with a period of approximately 24 hr indicative of a circadian rhythm in the functional organization of the retina.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.