Gallamine triethiodide (flaxedil) and cat retinal ganglion cell responses

1. Repeated flashes of diffuse light were presented to the cat's eye over long periods of time (hours) while the mixed ganglion cell response was recorded from single axons in the optic tract. This was done for cats receiving gallamine triethiodide intravenously and for cats who did not receive the drug.2. All responses were transformed into instantaneous pulse density tracings. Such tracings from control and gallamine cells were compared to observe possible effects of gallamine: (a) the shape (time course) did not change during gallamine administration; (b) maximum firing frequency, total number of spikes and latency was measured for both the on- and the off-component on the pulse density tracings and plotted versus time. Statistical methods failed to reveal any difference between the manner in which these response features of control cells and of gallamine cells varied with time.