Effect of Anoxemia on the Dark Adaptation of the Normal and of the Vitamin a-Deficient Subject

McDONALD, Robb; Adler, Francis Heed

doi:10.1001/archopht.1939.00860120052004

Cited by 31 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Several groups of measurements have been reported on the effect of anoxia on the final dark-adapted threshold of the eye (McFarland and Evans, 1939;McDonald and Adler, 1939;and Wald, Harper, Goodman, and Krieger, 1942). We made similar tests first, to see whether our oxygen mixtures would give comparable results; and second, to compare the effect of anoxia on the darkadapted cone threshold with that on the rod threshold.…”

Section: Threshold After Dark Adaptationmentioning

confidence: 90%

Anoxia and Brightness Discrimination

Hecht

Hendley

Frank

et al. 1946

Journal of General Physiology

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, I Nature of WorkIt is the commonest of observations both in actual flying and in pressure chamber experiments that fights become dim at high altitudes and then brighten on return to low altitudes. These events are due to the absence and presence of an adequate oxygen supply, as can be shown by their easy elimination when sufficient oxygen is available.The phenomenon itself has been demonstrated quantitatively as a rise in threshold of the dark-adapted eye during anoxia by NicFarland and Evans (1939), by McFarland and Forbes (1940), and by Wald, Harper, Goodman, and Krieger (1942). (C]. also Bunge, 1936, andFischer andJongbloed, 1936.) In addition MCFarland and Halperin (1940) found that visual acuity is affected by decreased oxygen tensions.Brightness discrimination and visual acuity are closely allied visual functions and it is not surprising that Schubert (1932-33) and Gellhorn (1936) detected an influence on brightness discrimination, though they recorded sharply conffieting results. However, McFarland, Halperin, and Niven (1944) have definitely shown that brightness discrimination is impaired by anoxia, and have explored the effect over the significant range of cone vision.Our own work--completed in 1942 but only now available because of its origins---confirms the findings of NicFarland, Halperin, and Niven. Our experiments were made somewhat differently from theirs; theirs cover a greater brightness range, but in most of their work a single low oxygen concentration was compared with room air. We compared seven different oxygen concentrations with room air, at three moderate brightnesses involving cone vision only. II Apparatus and ProcedureIf I is the light intensity of a uniform field of vision, and M is the fight intensity which needs to be added to a part of this field so that the particular *

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Section: Threshold After Dark Adaptationmentioning

confidence: 90%

Anoxia and Brightness Discrimination

Hecht

Hendley

Frank

et al. 1946

Journal of General Physiology

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“…In the present experiments they average about 1:2. In subjects exposed to about 10 per cent oxygen Bunge found the average rise of threshold to be about 3; McFarland and Forbes about 4;and McDonald and Adler (1939) about 2.5 times. These seem to represent the extreme limits of variation which disturbances central to the photochemical system can contribute to the visual threshold.…”

Section: Acid-base Imbalancementioning

confidence: 92%

Respiratory Effects Upon the Visual Threshold

Wald

Harper

Goodman

et al. 1942

Journal of General Physiology

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Measurements are reported of the effects of respiratory stresses upon the absolute threshold of peripheral (rod) vision. Since subjects were kept wholly dark adapted and the photochemical system of the rods therefore stationary, the changes recorded may be assumed to have originated more centrally. To this degree the measurements provide a quantitative index of central nervous imbalance. Breathing room air or 32 to 36 per cent oxygen at about double the normal rate causes the visual threshold to fall to approximately half the normal value within 5 to 10 minutes. This change is due primarily to alkalosis induced by the hyperventilation, and can be abolished or reversed by adding carbon dioxide to the inspired mixtures. Normal or rapid breathing of 2 per cent carbon dioxide causes no change in threshold; with 5 per cent carbon dioxide the threshold is approximately doubled. Breathing 10 per cent oxygen at the normal rate also approximately doubles the threshold. This effect is compensated in part by rapid breathing. When 10 per cent oxygen is breathed at twice the normal rate the threshold usually falls at first, then slowly rises to supernormal levels. Due primarily to variations in their breathing patterns subjects yield characteristically different responses on sudden exposure to low oxygen tensions with breathing uncontrolled. The threshold may either rise or fall; and on release from anoxia it may rise, or fall to normal or subnormal levels. The threshold adjusts to anoxia rapidly; exposures lasting 5 to 6 hours do not produce greater or more persistent changes than those of much shorter duration.

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“…Hecht and Mandelbaum (1939) obtained only slight effects with two subjects whose thresholds had risen 1 and 2 log units above normal, when oral doses of vitamin A concentrates containing 100,000 units w^ere given. McDonald and Adler (1939) were unable to lower the visual threshold with single large doses, nor were Steffens, Bair, and Sheard (1939). Hecht and Mandelbaum (1940), w^ho administered single doses of oleum percomorphum or of a concentrate containing a high value of vitamin A, obtained disappointing results.…”

Section: S 5 1 4 Cmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…It would be of interest to know, in the light of the findings of Johnson and of Tansley, whether the primary lesion which Hart and Guilbert obtained in sheep and cattle may not have been in the retina, with the optic nerve involved secondarily. In cases of greatly raised rod visual thresholds in humans, where the return to normal does not occur for many weeks and months, despite adequate diets and supplementary vitamin A administration (Hecht and Mandelbaum, 1939Mandelbaum, , 1940McDonald and Adler, 1939), one wonders whether there may not have been some structural degeneration of the rods. If degenerative changes of the rod outer segments occur in rats following prolonged deficiencies, as has been shown by Johnson and by Tansley, there seems to be no reason why this same condition might not occur in man.…”

Section: Vertebrate Photoreceptorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vertebrate Photoreceptors

2014

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Ladies and Gentlemen: Twenty-five years ago I landed in New Haven with a suitcase , a few dollars, and an urgent desire to study chemistry and biology of which I had already had the hors d'oeuvre, as it were. I was properly matriculated, with advanced standing, in the Sheffield Scientific School. Although I intended to major in chemistry, my chief concern that first week was how to earn "bread and butter," not to speak of meeting tuition and other charges less gastronomic in character. The only person I had ever heard of in New Haven was Professor Ross Harrison and I was told that he was an Embry-ologist. I finally found myself in his office, and with a timidity as great on that occasion as it is tonight , I presented to him the records of a few elementary observations which I had made in his subject-naturally seeking some credit. Credit was promised, with reservations! Just how it came to pass, I do not recall, but I was turned over to Professor Wesley R. Coe, then Division Officer, who, with the skill of a magician, showed me how I could get through Yale in one year instead of the expected two, provided, of course, that I would major in biology instead of chemistry. The case was quickly closed. Being from that moment on a presumptive biologist, I returned in due time to Professor Harrison, who undoubtedly did the greatest bit of academic gambling in his career by taking me on as laboratory assistant in the course in embryology for which I received the cherished sum of $5 per week. During that year as a senior in biology I was exposed to but one short course in zoology, and virtually became a botanist. To such an extent did I become a botanist that the following year, my first year of graduate work, I was made laboratory instructor in plant morphology, and became saturated with the odor of the bryophytes and the cryptogams. I * The fifth Harry Burr Ferris Lecture in Anatomy, delivered at Yale University, March 2, 1938.

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Effect of Anoxemia on the Dark Adaptation of the Normal and of the Vitamin a-Deficient Subject

Cited by 31 publications

References 10 publications

Anoxia and Brightness Discrimination

Anoxia and Brightness Discrimination

Respiratory Effects Upon the Visual Threshold

Vertebrate Photoreceptors

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