THE ON RESPONSES TO COLORED FLASH IN SINGLE OPTIC TRACT FIBERS OF CAT: CORRELATION WITH CONDUCTION VELOCITY

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Abstract
In anesthetized cat only one correlation was found between the response to light of individual retinal ganglion cells and the conduction velocity along their axons: the differential responsiveness of the on responses to the two colors, blue and red. Responsiveness was expressed numerically as spike number x frequency/latency and the light intensities used were adjusted to give retinograms of equal amplitude to blue and to red. Slow fibers responded 2.5 times more activity to blue than to red flashes. Fast fibers responded 1.04 times more actively to red than to blue flashes. There was no overlapping of individual values between the two groups. This finding would appear to provide an adequate explanation of the shorter central transmission time for red than for blue found in previous studies. It adds to the evidence that not only peripheral but also central nervous mechanisms are involved in the reception of color.