The outer disinhibitory surround of the retinal ganglion cell receptive field

1. There is an outer disinhibitory zone surrounding the classical inhibitory surround of the retinal ganglion cell receptive field.2. The disinhibitory surround is strong and narrow in ;sustained' cells but weak and laterally spread in ;transient' cells.3. The disinhibitory surround can be demonstrated using a black spot as a probing stimulus as well as by a white spot, and is therefore not an artifact of scattered light.4. Stimulation with a light spot in the disinhibitory zone gives an increase in firing to ;stimulus on' in on-centre cells and to ;stimulus off' in off-centre cells.5. The disinhibitory surround may be revealed by plotting the latency of the first spike discharge following stimulation against position in the receptive field. The disinhibitory zone shows a decrease in latency to the centre-type stimulus.6. The disinhibitory surround may be revealed by plotting the threshold intensity of a spot against position in the receptive field. It is thus a feature of the sensitivity gradients of both ;transient' and ;sustained' cells.7. Using two spots, one at the centre of the receptive field and the other at varying distances from the receptive field centre, dynamic interactions between the centre, inhibitory and disinhibitory zones are demonstrated. A spot presented in the disinhibitory zone causes an enhancement of the centre response when flashing in phase with the centre spot, while it causes inhibition of the centre response when presented 180 degrees out of phase.8. A scheme for the anatomical basis of the disinhibitory surround is proposed, and the relation of disinhibition to the spatial transfer characteristics of the visual pathways is discussed.