Common features of light-evoked amacrine cell responses in vertebrate retina.

The light-evoked electrical responses of a large number of amacrine cells in the roach retina have been observed by intracellular recording. Examination of response profiles suggests that amacrine cell responses possess a number of common features: combinations of sustained and transient components, light-dependent membrane noise and oscillations, afterpotentials. From these and other observations taken together, a unified view of light-evoked amacrine cell responses is presented, whereby response profiles are thought to reflect synaptic organizations rather than differences in inherent membrane properties.