Rods progressively escape saturation to drive visual responses in daylight conditions.

Rod and cone photoreceptors support vision across large light intensity ranges. Rods, active under dim illumination, are thought to saturate at higher (photopic) irradiances. The extent of rod saturation is not well defined; some studies report rod activity well into the photopic range.

Retinal output changes qualitatively with every change in ambient illuminance.

The collective activity pattern of retinal ganglion cells, the retinal code, underlies higher visual processing. How does the ambient illuminance of the visual scene influence this retinal output? We recorded from isolated mouse and pig retina and from mouse dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus in vivo at up to seven ambient light levels covering the scotopic to photopic regimes. Across each luminance transition, most ganglion cells exhibited qualitative response changes, whereas they maintained stable responses within each luminance.

Step-by-step instructions for retina recordings with perforated multi electrode arrays.

Multi-electrode arrays are a state-of-the-art tool in electrophysiology, also in retina research. The output cells of the retina, the retinal ganglion cells, form a monolayer in many species and are well accessible due to their proximity to the inner retinal surface. This structure has allowed the use of multi-electrode arrays for high-throughput, parallel recordings of retinal responses to presented visual stimuli, and has led to significant new insights into retinal organization and function.