Signal transmission in the catfish retina. I. Transmission in the outer retina.

Extrinsic current, either pulsatile or white-noise modulated, was injected into the (cone) horizontal-cell soma and axon, and resulting responses were recorded from nearby points. In the case of white-noise inputs, signal transmission between the two points was characterized by Wiener kernels. The signal transmission within the lamina, the S-space, formed by the (cone) horizontal-cell somas and axons is quasi-linear and very fast, indicating that the laminae are purely resistive networks within the frequency range of the light-evoked response. There exists signal transaction between the lamina formed by the somas and axons. The forward transmission is constant gain, low pass, but there is a filter for the reverse transmission to impede the backflow of high-frequency components. Signals in the horizontal-cell soma are transmitted to the bipolar cells. The transmission is sign noninverting for the on-center bipolar cells and sign inverting for the offcenter cells. The transmission is quasi-linear excluding complex mechanisms in the transmission. We believe that the forward and direct transmission of signals from the horizontal to bipolar cells is the most straightforward interpretation of the observation. The transfer functions between the horizontal and bipolar cells differ considerably from one bipolar cell to the next.