| Abstract: | A simplified model of the membrane of horizontal cells of the L-type is designed to reflect two principal features of these cells previously studied experimentally: 1) their hyperpolarization response to light is the result of a decrease in the EPSP that is kept constant in darkness; 2) the resistance of their nonsynaptic membrane is reduced during hyperpolarization within physiological limits (from 0 to−70 mV). The model also reproduces properties of the horizontal cells such as the low membrane potential in darkness, reversal of the response to light during depolarization beyond the zero level, mutual amplification of color signals, saturation of the response to bright light, steady-state volt-ampere characteristics in darkness and light, and the amplitude characteristic curve which often has a steep part within a certain range of membrane potentials. The presence of hysteresis loops of the volt-ampere and amplitude characteristic curves of the horizontal cells predicted by the model was confirmed experimentally on the fish retina. Analysis of the model and results obtained with it show that the nonsynaptic membrane of the horizontal cells can actively amplify slow graded potentials. |
