COMPONENT ANALYSIS OF THE FOVEAL LOCAL ELECTRORETINOGRAM ELICITED WITH SINUSOIDAL FLICKER

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the sources of the local electroretinogram (LERG) in the primate eye, in response to sinusoidal light input. A review of existing primate data suggests that the late receptor potential (LRP) dominates the low-amplitude response to weak input modulations; this conclusion is compatible with intra- and extracellular recordings from lower species that have shown that the other major ERG potentials arise from nonneural cells that respond poorly to flickering stimuli. Reported here are new experiments designed to test the origins of the LERG, including regional retinal recordings, Fourier waveform analysis, and spectral sensitivity data. The results support our earlier conclusion that the low-amplitude LERG obtained with sinusoidal flicker is dominated by the LRP. © 1979.