Abstract: While the functions of ON and OFF retinal ganglion cells have been intensively investigated, that of ON-OFF cells\ has not. In the present study, the temporal properties of spike trains emitted from ON-OFF cells in response to randomly flickeri\ ng or multiphase ramp stimuli were examined in the Japanese quail. The results indicate that the firing of ON-spikes was influence\ d by the recent firing of OFF-spikes, and vice versa. As a result of this interaction, OFF/ON sequence of light intensity change w\ as encoded with a spike pair with an interval of 20 ms, indicating that temporal coding is utilized in the vertebrate visual system\ as early as the retina. Thus, the present results suggest that retinal neuronal circuits may detect specific sequential features \ of stimuli.