Temporal contrast adaptation in salamander bipolar cells

This work investigates how the light responses of salamander bipolar cells adapt to changes in temporal contrast: changes in the depth of the temporal fluctuations in light intensity about the mean. Contrast affected the sensitivity of bipolar cells but not of photoreceptors or horizontal cells, suggesting that adaptation occurred in signal transfer from photoreceptors to bipolars. This suggestion was confirmed by recording from photoreceptor-bipolar pairs and observing a direct dependence of the gain of signal transfer on the contrast of the light input. After an increase in contrast, the onset of adaptation in the bipolar cell had a time constant of 1-2 sec, similar to a fast component of contrast adaptation in the light responses of retinal ganglion cells (Kim and Rieke, 2001). Contrast adaptation was mediated by processes in the dendrites of both on and off bipolars. The functional properties of adaptation differed for the two bipolar types, however, with contrast having a much more pronounced effect on the kinetics of the responses of off cells than on cells.