The functional role of retinal horizontal cells.

From the mid 1950's through early 1960's, a number of papers were published in the Japanese Journal of Physiology on the "S-potential" of the vertebrate retina (e.g. The S-potential, so named by the late Professor Motokawa after the name of the discoverer, Gunnar Svaetichin, refers to the light-evoked intracellular responses in the retina and is now identified as the response of the second-order visual neurons, horizontal cells (Fig. It is a graded and sustained potential change, hyperpolarizing to a white light from the dark level of approximately -30 mV [18 , 33, 69, 77]. Bright illumination evokes a saturating response that reaches about -80 mV. Another character of the S-potential is its large receptive field.