En face optical coherence tomography of transient light response at photoreceptor outer segments in living frog...

This study was designed to test the feasibility of en face mapping of the transient intrinsic optical signal (IOS) response at photoreceptor outer segments and to assess the effect of spatial resolution on functional IOS imaging of retinal photoreceptors. A line-scan optical coherence tomography (LS-OCT) was constructed to achieve depth-resolved functional IOS imaging of living frog eyecups. Rapid en face OCT revealed transient IOS almost immediately (<3 ms) after the onset of visible light flashes at photoreceptor outer segments. Quantitative analysis indicated that the IOS kinetics may reflect dynamics of G-protein binding and releasing in early phases of visual transduction, and high resolution is essential to differentiate positive and negative IOS changes in adjacent locations.