Dendritic field development of retinal ganglion cells in the cat following neonatal damage to visual cortex: Evidence for cell class specific interactions

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) usually increase their dendritic field area with postnatal retinal growth. The mechanisms that regulate the postnatal shape of dendritic arbors in the growing retina are not well understood. Quantitative studies suffer from the difficulty of labeling specific subpopulations of RGCs selectively including their dendritic processes. In this study, we labeled displaced retinal ganglion cells (DGC) that are known to project to the accessory optic system (AOS) in juvenile and adult chameleons by retrograde transport of dextran amines. The complete population of DGCs was quantitatively screened for the effects of postnatal retinal growth on cell morphology, dendritic field coverage, and dendritic arbor size. The adult eye contained 2000 DGCs/retina. This number was already present at birth. The smaller size of the hatchling eye (approximately 1/3 of the adult size) led to higher densities of DGCs. The greatest accumulation of juvenile DGCs (two-fold higher compared to the adult) was found in the periphery of the retina where the greatest surface expansion was observed. DGC dendritic field areas were adjusted proportionally to this expansion in order to maintain a constant dendritic coverage. The increase of dendritic fields was mediated by two putative passive mechanisms: First, an elongation of individual dendrites similar to previous reports of postnatal RGC development in the retina of goldfish and chicks. Second, and more prominent, we observed that neighboring dendrites were pulled apart from each other. This resulted in a looser spacing of the initially tightly packed dendrites of each dendritic arbor. This dispersal of dendrites over a larger area was, due to its passive nature, proportional to the increase of the retinal surface and preserved a constant dendritic coverage irrespective of the animal's age and eye size.

Download Full-text

Changing dendritic field size of mouse retinal ganglion cells in early postnatal development

Developmental Neurobiology ◽

10.1002/dneu.20777 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 70 (6) ◽

pp. 397-407 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Lei Ren ◽

Haitian Liang ◽

Ling Diao ◽

Shigang He

Keyword(s):

Postnatal Development ◽

Retinal Ganglion Cells ◽

Ganglion Cells ◽

Field Size ◽

Retinal Ganglion ◽

Dendritic Field ◽

Early Postnatal Development

Download Full-text

Faculty Opinions recommendation of A dedicated circuit links direction-selective retinal ganglion cells to the primary visual cortex.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.718289702.793497767 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

David Fitzpatrick ◽

Gordon Smith

Keyword(s):

Visual Cortex ◽

Retinal Ganglion Cells ◽

Primary Visual Cortex ◽

Ganglion Cells ◽

Retinal Ganglion

Download Full-text

Analysis of vertebrate eye movements following intravitreal drug injections. I. Blockade of retinal ON-cells by 2-amino-4-phosphonobutyrate eliminates optokinetic nystagmus

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.1988.60.3.1010 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 60 (3) ◽

pp. 1010-1021 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

A. G. Knapp ◽

M. Ariel ◽

F. R. Robinson

Keyword(s):

Visual Cortex ◽

Eye Movements ◽

Retinal Ganglion Cells ◽

Optokinetic Nystagmus ◽

Ganglion Cells ◽

Directional Asymmetry ◽

Retinal Ganglion ◽

Binocular Stimulation ◽

Vertebrate Eye ◽

Stimulation Of

1. Horizontal optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) was examined in alert rabbits and cats following intravitreal injection of 2-amino-4-phosphonobutyrate (APB), an agent which selectively blocks the light-responsiveness of retinal ON-cells while having little effect on OFF-cells. The retinal actions of APB were assessed independently by electroretinography. 2. In five rabbits, doses of APB sufficient to eliminate the b-wave of the electroretinogram reduced drastically the ability of the injected eye to drive OKN at all stimulus speeds tested (1-96 degrees/s). Impairment of OKN was apparent within minutes of the injection, remained maximal for several hours, and recovered completely in 1-7 days. OKN in response to stimulation of the uninjected eye alone remained qualitatively and quantitatively normal. 3. Following administration of APB, OKN in response to binocular stimulation displayed a directional asymmetry. Stimuli moving in the preferred (temporal-to-nasal) direction for the uninjected eye became more effective than stimuli moving in the opposite direction, indicating that the injected eye could no longer contribute to binocular OKN. 4. When rabbits viewed stationary stimuli through the APB-treated eye alone, episodes of slow (less than 1 degrees/s) ocular drift were observed, similar to the positional instability seen when rabbits are placed in darkness or when the retinal image is stablized artifically (12). 5. APB had little effect on OKN in normal cats. In two cats that had previously received large lesions of the visual cortex, however, APB eliminated the ability of the injected eye to drive monocular OKN. The extent of the impairment was similar to that seen in rabbits. Because the cortex is thought to contribute more to OKN in cats than in rabbits, this result suggests that the optokinetic pathways disrupted by APB project subcortically. 6. This study demonstrates that the integrity of retinal ON-cells is required to sustain normal OKN. The results are consistent with additional anatomic and physiological evidence suggesting that a particular subclass of retinal ganglion cells, the ON-direction-selective cells, may provide a crucial source of visual input to central optokinetic pathways.

Download Full-text

Influence of the visual cortex on responses of retinal ganglion cells in the rat

Journal of Neuroscience Research ◽

10.1002/jnr.490100407 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 397-409 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

S. Molotchnikoff ◽

F. Tremblay

Keyword(s):

Visual Cortex ◽

Retinal Ganglion Cells ◽

Ganglion Cells ◽

Retinal Ganglion

Download Full-text

Morphology of wide-field bistratified and diffuse human retinal ganglion cells

Visual Neuroscience ◽

10.1017/s0952523800174073 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 17 (4) ◽

pp. 567-578 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

BETH B. PETERSON ◽

DENNIS M. DACEY

Keyword(s):

Retinal Ganglion Cells ◽

Ganglion Cells ◽

Field Size ◽

Wide Field ◽

Human Retina ◽

Retinal Ganglion ◽

Branch Points ◽

Dendritic Trees ◽

Dendritic Field ◽

Dendritic Branching

To study the detailed morphology of human retinal ganglion cells, we used intracellular injection of horseradish peroxidase and Neurobiotin to label over 1000 cells in an in vitro, wholemount preparation of the human retina. This study reports on the morphology of 119 wide-field bistratified and 42 diffuse ganglion cells. Cells were analyzed quantitatively on the basis of dendritic-field size, soma size, and the extent of dendritic branching. Bistratified cells were similar in dendritic-field diameter (mean ± s.d. = 682 ± 130 μm) and soma diameter (mean ± s.d. = 18 ± 3.3 μm) but showed a broad distribution in the extent of dendritic branching (mean ± s.d. branch point number = 67 ± 32; range = 15–167). Differences in the extent of branching and in dendritic morphology and the pattern of branching suggest that the human retina may contain at least three types of wide-field bistratified cells. Diffuse ganglion cells comprised a largely homogeneous group whose dendrites ramified throughout the inner plexiform layer. The diffuse cells had similar dendritic-field diameters (mean ± s.d. = 486 ± 113 μm), soma diameters (mean ± s.d. = 16 ± 2.3 μm), and branch points numbers (mean ± s.d. = 92 ± 32). The majority had densely branched dendritic trees and thin, very spiny dendrites with many short, fine, twig-like thorny processes. Five of the diffuse cells had much more sparsely branched dendritic trees (<50 branch points) and less spiny dendrites, suggesting that there are possibly two types of diffuse ganglion cells in human retina. Although the presence of a diversity of large bistratified and diffuse ganglion cells has been observed in a variety of mammalian retinas, little is known about the number of cell types, their physiological properties, or their central projections. Some of the human wide-field bistratified cells in the present study, however, show morphological similarities to monkey large bistratified cells that are known to project to the superior colliculus.

Download Full-text