The discovery of the ability of rod photoreceptors to signal single photons
| Autor: | Edward N. Pugh |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
Photon genetic structures Physiology Reviews Signal 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Reliable transmission Retinal Rod Photoreceptor Cells Animals Humans Visual threshold Vision Ocular Physics Milestone in Physiology Photons Rod Photoreceptors 030104 developmental biology Neuronal noise Sensory Thresholds Molecular mechanism Neuroscience 030217 neurology & neurosurgery |
| Zdroj: | The Journal of General Physiology |
| ISSN: | 1540-7748 0022-1295 |
| Popis: | A retrospective on the scientific importance and impact of Hecht, Shlaer, and Pirenne’s classic 1942 paper, “Energy, Quanta, and Vision.” Vertebrate rod photoreceptors evolved the astonishing ability to respond reliably to single photons. In parallel, the proximate neurons of the visual system evolved the ability to reliably encode information from a few single-photon responses (SPRs) as arising from the presence of an object of interest in the visual environment. These amazing capabilities were first inferred from measurements of human visual threshold by Hecht et al. (1942), whose paper has since been cited over 1,000 times. Subsequent research, in part inspired by Hecht et al.’s discovery, has directly measured rod SPRs, characterized the molecular mechanism responsible for their generation, and uncovered much about the specializations in the retina that enable the reliable transmission of SPRs in the teeth of intrinsic neuronal noise. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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