Hartline investigated the electrical responses of the retinas of certain
arthropods, vertebrates, and mollusks because their visual systems are
much simpler than those of humans and are thus easier to study. He concentrated
his studies on the eye of the horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus). Using
minute electrodes in his experiments, he obtained the first record of
the electrical impulses sent by a single optic nerve fibre when the
receptors connected to it are stimulated by light. He found that the
receptor cells in the eye are interconnected in such a way that when
one is stimulated, others nearby are depressed, thus enhancing the contrast
in light patterns and sharpening the perception of shapes. Hartline
thus built up a detailed understanding of the workings of individual
photoreceptors and nerve fibres in the retina, and he showed how simple
retinal mechanisms constitute vital steps in the integration of visual
information.
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