A Quantitative Description of the Dynamics of Excitation and Inhibition in the Eye of Limulus

By means of intracellular microelectrode techniques, we have measured the dynamics of the several processes which translate light stimulation into spike activity in the Limulus eye. The transductions from light to voltage and from voltage to spike rate, and the lateral inhibitory transduction from spike rate to voltage, we have characterized by transfer functions. We have checked the appropriateness of treating the eye as a system of linear transducers under our experimental conditions. The response of the eye to a large spot of light undergoing sine flicker has been correctly predicted.