One of the early works on DS cells in vertebrates was done on the rabbit retina by H. Barlow and W. Levick in 1965. Their experimental methods include variations to the slit-experiments and recording of the action potentials in the rabbit retina. The basic set-up of the slit experiment was they presented a moving black-white grating through a slit of various widths to a rabbit and recorded the action potentials in the retina. This early study had a large impact on the study of DS cells by laying down the foundation for later studies. The study showed that DS ganglion cells derive their property from the basis of sequence-discriminating activity of subunits, and that this activity may be the result of inhibitory mechanism in response to the motion of image in the null direction. It also showed that the DS property of retinal ganglion cells is distributed over the entire receptive field, and not limited to specific zones. Direction selectivity is contained for two adjacent points in the receptive field separated by as small as 1/4°, but selectivity decreased with larger separations. They used this to support their hypothesis that discrimination of sequences gives rise to direction selectivity because normal movement would activate adjacent points in a succession.
