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Updated: Aug 10, 2026

Determination of Photoreceptor Cell Spectral Sensitivity in an Insect Model from In Vivo Intracellular Recordings
Published on: February 26, 2016
Analysis of visual modulation sensitivity. II. Peripheral retina and the role of photoreceptor dimensions
Abstract:
Temporal-frequency characteristics were measured as a function of retinal location, with test-field size scaled to provide equivalent sensitivity at each eccentricity. The results showed that the temporal-frequency limits increased uniformly by about a factor of 2 between the fovea and 45 degrees eccentricity, corresponding to a decrease in the response-time constant from 70 to 35 msec. These data were compared with the change in inner- and outer-segment diameters of the cones across the same retinal range. The data conform to the hypothesis that visual time constant varies inversely with cone outer-segment diameter. A second hypothesis that visual sensitivity increases in proportion to come outer-segment length in the central fovea was also supported.
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