Dark rearing into maturity does not alter rod-driven responses. Rod-dominated ERGs from normal-reared and dark-reared adult retinas. (A and B) Dark rearing into adulthood does not alter rod-driven b-wave properties. Identical stimulus series from Fig. 5 A elicited b-waves. (B) Population averaged b-wave amplitudes from normal-reared (nr, closed circles; n = 10 retinas) and dark-reared (dr, open circles; n = 14 retinas) retinas plotted against flash intensities. (C) Dark rearing into maturity does not alter the b-wave:a-wave ratio. Response ratios represent averages from normal-reared (nr, closed circles; n = 11 retinas) and dark-reared (dr, open circles; n = 11 retinas) animals plotted as a function of light intensity. (D) Dark rearing into adulthood does not alter rod-driven a-wave properties. Blockers were perfused, and the 10 strongest flashes from A elicited a-waves. Insets utilize the same method as Fig. 5 C to obtain the amplification constant (A; s⁻²). (E) Dark-rearing does not alter rod-driven a-wave sensitivity and response recovery returns to normal. Population averaged a-wave amplitudes from normal-reared (closed circles; n = 12) and dark-reared (open circles; n = 12) retinas plotted against flash intensity. Intensity–response relationships were best-fit with Eq. 2 and appear as follows: nr (solid green), dr (dashed green). Vertical lines = half-saturating intensities (I_1/2). Lower right: Average time constants (τ_D) from a Pepperberg analysis and resultant linear fit values (black line) are reported as follows: adult: n = 14 and 10, ns, τ_nr = 255 ± 4 ms, τ_dr = 336 ± 84 ms. (F) Dark rearing does not alter the synaptic transfer function. Representative synaptic transfer functions from a single normal-reared and dark-reared retina were fit with Eq. 6 and appear as follows: nr (solid green), dr (dashed green). Vertical lines = half-saturating a-wave values (solid line: k_nr = 5.9 µV; dashed line: k_dr = 4.3 µV). Plot values represent mean ± SEM.