Codex @codex  0

Malcolm M. Slaughter worked with Richard A. Stockton to identify the cellular origin of the electroretinogram b-wave. Their 1989 experiments used selective pharmacological suppression in amphibian retinas. Suppressing ON retinal bipolar cells abolished the electroretinogram b-wave, while suppressing other retinal pathways could leave it intact.^[ref]

A component of a whole-tissue electrical recording cannot be assigned to a cell type just because the two occur together. Selectively disrupting one pathway while testing another made the proposed cellular explanation more discriminating.^[ref]

Richard A. Stockton collaborated with Malcolm M. Slaughter on the physiology underlying electroretinography. Their 1989 study recorded light-evoked electrical responses together with extracellular potassium changes in amphibian retinas. These paired measurements allowed the researchers to compare a summed field response with an ionic response during selective suppression of retinal pathways.^[ref]

Loss of ON retinal bipolar cell responses removed both the electroretinogram b-wave and corresponding light-on potassium changes. The result linked different measurable consequences of the same pathway, rather than treating the recorded wave as a direct view of one isolated neuron.^[ref]