human eye Flickeranatomy

The work of the retina » Electrophysiology of the retina » Flicker

Electrophysiology has been used as a tool for the examination of the basic mechanism of flicker and fusion. The classical studies based on the electroretinogram indicated that the important feature that determines fusion in the cone-dominated retina is the inhibition of the retina caused by each successive light flash, inhibition being indicated by the a-wave of the electroretinogram. In the rod-dominated retina—e.g., in man under scotopic conditions— the a-wave is not prominent, and fusion depends simply on the tendency for the excitatory response to a flash to persist, the inhibitory effects of a succeeding stimulus being small. More modern methods of analysis, in which the discharges in single ganglion cells in response to repeated flashes are measured, have defined fairly precisely the nature of fusion, which, so far as the retinal message is concerned, is a condition in which the record from the ganglion cell becomes identical with the record observed in the ganglion cell during spontaneous discharge during constant illumination.

Citations

MLA Style:

"human eye." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 08 Jan. 2009 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/199272/eye>.

APA Style:

human eye. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved January 08, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/199272/eye

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Link to this article and share the full text with the readers of your Web site or blog-post.

If you think a reference to this article on "eye (anatomy)" will enhance your Web site, blog-post, or any other web-content, then feel free to link to this article, and your readers will gain full access to the full article, even if they do not subscribe to our service.

You may want to use the HTML code fragment provided below.

copy link

We welcome your comments. Any revisions or updates suggested for this article will be reviewed by our editorial staff. Contact us here.

Regular users of Britannica may notice that this comments feature is less robust than in the past. This is only temporary, while we make the transition to a dramatically new and richer site. The functionality of the system will be restored soon.

A-Z Browse

Image preview