This volume is a collection of essays which attempts to summarize the recent progress in the field of photoreceptor and retinal physiology. Reflecting the way in which research is organized, each author reports on the studies performed with the techniques with which he is most familiar: morpholo gical, chemical or physiological. The first chapters describe the structure of visual cells and the histological architecture of the retina. Next comes a summary of the laws governing photochemical reactions and a report on the biochemistry of photopigments. Four articles cover the optical properties of invertebrate eyes and the electrophysiology and the interactions of their photoreceptors. These are followed by a discussion of the properties of vertebrate eyes, including chapters on optics, on the electrical responses of rods and cones and on the functional organization of the retina. The final chapter provides an extensive review of retinal biochemistry and metabolism. Even though the experimental approach differs, all studies are directed toward the solution of two basic problems: transduction in the photoreceptors and orga nization (often called "information processing") in the retina. The central problem of photoreceptor cells is to determine how light produces a response. We know that illumination evokes electrical changes and we have recently learned a great deal about the features of these changes. The evidence indicates however that elaborate processes must be interposed between the ab sorption of photons by the pigment and the production of electric currents through the membrane. These intermediary cvents remain to be unraveled.
This book is the product of a two-day symposium held at the University of Texas, Austin, in March 1978. There was double motivation for our hosting a symposium on neural mechanisms in behavior. The 1977-1978 academic year marked both the 50th anniversary of the Department of Psychology at Texas and the 30th anniversary of the famous Hixon Symposium organized by the longest serving member of the department, LLOYD JEFFRESS. PHILIP GOUGH, then chairman of the department, suggested that the department celebrate these two historic events, and honor itself in the process, by holding the first of a series of symposia on topics in experimental psychology. Approval and initial funding for this enterprise came from ROBERT KING, then Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences; additional funds were pro vided by the Program in Cognitive Science of the Sloan Foundation. Proceeds from the sale of this volume will all pass into a fund to help support subsequent symposia and volumes. At 50 we are clearly a young department, even for a psy chology department, but psychology was at least nominally present from the beginning of The University of Texas in 1883. Then, courses in psychology were offered in the School of Philosophy and had wonderful titles, such as "Mental Science (Strictly Speaking). " In 1898, the first experimental psychology course was offered. (Or at least it was intended to be offered; the catalog indicated that it was contingent upon the availability of necessary equipment.
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