Vertebrate Photoreceptor Optics

It is in the receptors of the vertebrate retina that the characteristic visual process — the transduction of radiational energy into physiological activtty of a different kind — takes place. The way these receptors modify or redistribute the incident radiation and thereby control the light ab­ sorption by the visual pigments they contain, is the central theme of this book. As far back as 1843 Brucke put forward a well—reasoned model for the optics of a receptor, assuming simple ray optics, ...