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Science 3 December 1971:
Vol. 174. no. 4013, pp. 1027 - 1029
DOI: 10.1126/science.174.4013.1027
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Articles

Limulus Lateral Eye: Properties of Receptor Units in the Unexcised Eye

Robert B. Barlow Jr. 1 and Ehud Kaplan 1

1 Laboratory of Sensory Communication, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13210

Single receptor units in the compound eye of the horseshoe crab were illuminated, and their impulse discharges were recorded without removing the eye from the animal. The receptors were spontaneously active in darkness and responded without saturation over a light intensity range of 1010 to 1. When the eye was excised, the receptors did not discharge in darkness and had an intensity range of 105 to 1, as is usually found. Experiments show that these and other differences result from cutting off the blood supply to the eye when it is excised. In addition, the range and shape of the intensity characteristic suggest that more than one receptor mechanism encodes light intensity in this eye.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Limulus brain modulates the structure and function of the lateral eyes.
R. Barlow Jr, S. Chamberlain, and J. Levinson (1980)
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Efferent optic nerve fibers mediate circadian rhythms in the Limulus eye.
R. Barlow Jr, S. Bolanowski Jr, and M. Brachman (1977)
Science 197, 86-89
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Distributed Relaxation Processes in Sensory Adaptation: Spatial nonuniformity in receptors can explain both the curious dynamics and logarithmic statics of adaptation.
J. Thorson and M. Biederman-Thorson (1974)
Science 183, 161-172
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Optics and Visual Physiology.
I. M. Siegel (1972)
Arch Ophthalmol 88, 212-227
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)