An analysis of the wave forms of photoreceptor potentials in the retina of the chephalopod Sepiola atlantica.

1. Simultaneous intracellular (Vi) and extracellular (Ve) recordings have been made from photoreceptor cells in the retina of the cephalopod Sepiola atlantica. 2. The depolarization of the distal (rhodopsin containing) membrane (Vm) was derived from the Vi and Ve records. 3. All three potentials had very similar time courses in response to short flashes of low intensity but the Vi and Vm responses were much greater in amplitude. 4. At high intensities the amplitudes of Vi and Ve were similar but the wave forms were quite different and it was postulated that a voltage-sensitive potassium conductance change in the proximal membranes of the cell was mainly reponsible for the observed differences. 5. The wave forms of the three responses following long (500 msec) flashes were quite different at all intensities tested. At high intensities there was a slow sag phase in the Vi response, that was mirrored by a slow rise phase in the Ve responses. The reconstructed Vm response was flat during this period of change in the other two responses. 6. The recoveries to the base line of all responses following both long and short flashes were similar in that at high intensities they consisted of at least two phases. The fast phase had a time constant less than 1 sec and the slow component had a time constant of greater than 10 sec. 7. The maximum rates of change of voltage (dV/dt) in both short and long flash responses were linear over a much wider range of intensity values than were the response amplitudes and the rates continued to increase after the peak response amplitude had saturated. 8. The characteristics of the cephalopod responses were compared with those from vertebrate rods and cones and several marked similarities were found.