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Introduction
ROBERT SHAPLEY
The visual interface between human visual perception and patterns
of light in the world is the photoreceptor layer of the retina. All our
experience of the appearance of objects and spatial or temporal patterns
of illumination is filtered through the receptor array. All visual function
thus depends on the characteristics of photoreceptors for example, their
responsiveness to different wavelengths of light, the gain and regulation of
the biochemical cascade kicked off by the absorption of a photon of light,
and the spatial arrangement of photoreceptors within the photoreceptor
layer.
Our keynote speaker, William Miller, has contributed major insights
to two of the areas of photoreceptor function: the biochemical cascade of
phototransduction and the nature of photoreceptor assays. Dr. Miller was
one of the first scientists to look at cyclic nucleotides as candidates for the
internal messenger molecule that mediates transduction. The great discov-
eries of recent years about cyclic GMP, phosphodiesterase, transduction or
G-protein, and the regulatory roles of calcium and guanylate cyclase are all
results of experiments and models inspired by the initiatives of Dr. Miller
and colleagues.
At the Frontiers of Vision symposium, Dr. Miller spoke briefly about
optical effects in green rods and devoted the major part of his address to
the topic of transduction. His talk is an introduction to a great problem,
now apparently solved, by one of the great masters who contributed to
its solution. Dr. Miller's insights into the major issues of transduction are
penetrating. His summary of the process is a useful introduction to the rest
of the symposium.
1
Representative terms from entire chapter:
photoreceptor layer
