Automated methods for efficient and accurate electroretinography

Electroretinography (ERG) is a foundational method for assessing visual system physiology, but accurate ERG can be time- and labor-intensive, often involving manual adjustment of the wavelength and intensity of light stimuli and real-time comparison of physiological responses to inform those adjustments. Furthermore, current approaches to ERG often require expertise beyond that necessary for the electrophysiological preparation itself. To improve both the efficiency and accessibility of ERG, we designed an automated system for stimulus presentation and data acquisition. Here, we test this novel system's ability to accurately assess spectral sensitivity in the well-characterized visual system of the crayfish Procambarus clarkii using three approaches: the first, based on response magnitude, maximizes efficiency; the second is a well-established method we use to further validate our efficient approach's accuracy. Third, we explore the potential benefits of extensible automation using a method assessing the interplay between temporal acuity and spectral sensitivity. Using our system, we are able to acquire accurate results in ERG experiments quickly (testing the entire visible spectrum in 8 min, 30 s using our response magnitude approach). Moreover, data collected via all three methods yielded results consistent with each other and previous work on P. clarkii.