Temporal resolution of single photon responses in primate rod photoreceptors and limits imposed by cellular noise.
Abstract
Sensory receptor noise corrupts sensory signals, contributing to imperfect perception
and dictating central processing strategies. For example, noise in rod phototransduction
limits our ability to detect light and minimizing the impact of this noise requires
precisely tuned nonlinear processing by the retina. But detection sensitivity is only
one aspect of night vision: prompt and accurate behavior also requires that rods reliably
encode the timing of photon arrivals. We show here that the temporal resolution of
responses of primate rods is much finer than the duration of the light response and
identify the key limiting sources of transduction noise. We also find that the thermal
activation rate of rhodopsin is lower than previous estimates, implying that other
noise sources are more important than previously appreciated. A model of rod single-photon
responses reveals that the limiting noise relevant for behavior depends critically
on how rod signals are pooled by downstream neurons.
Type
Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/17856Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1152/jn.00683.2018Publication Info
Field, Greg D; Uzzell, Valerie; Chichilnisky, EJ; & Rieke, Fred (2018). Temporal resolution of single photon responses in primate rod photoreceptors and limits
imposed by cellular noise. Journal of neurophysiology. 10.1152/jn.00683.2018. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/17856.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Greg D. Field
Adjunct Associate Professor of Neurobiology
My laboratory studies how the retina processes visual scenes and transmits this information
to the brain. We use multi-electrode arrays to record the activity of hundreds of
retina neurons simultaneously in conjunction with transgenic mouse lines and chemogenetics
to manipulate neural circuit function. We are interested in three major areas. First,
we work to understand how neurons in the retina are functionally connected. Second
we are studying how light-adaptation and circadian rhythms a

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