Spatial-temporal response characteristics of the ON-OFF direction selective ganglion cells in the rabbit retina.

We studied the response properties of the ON-OFF direction selective (DS) ganglion cells in the rabbit retina. The activities of the ganglion cells were recorded extracellularly with tungsten-in-glass electrodes. Drifting sine-wave gratings with various spatial and temporal frequencies were used to stimulate the ON-OFF DS cells. Individual ON-OFF DS cell yielded strongest response to a particular spatial frequency irrespective of temporal frequency. The optimal spatial wavelength increased with increasing eccentricity and its half-width approximately matched the size of the receptive field. The optimal spatial frequency implies that the directional inhibition is effective over a range of about a receptive field diameter. The characteristics of the ON-OFF DS cells suggest that they might function as local motion detectors.