Parallel Processing in the Visual System: The Classification of Retinal Ganglion Cells and Its Impact on the Neurobiology of Vision By ?, 438 pp., illus., Plenum Press, New York, 1983, £38.00

ABSTRACTMotion detection represents one of the critical tasks of the visual system and has motivated a large body of research. However, is remain unclear precisely why the response of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) to simple artificial stimuli does not predict their response to complex naturalistic stimuli. To explore this topic, we use Motion Clouds (MC), which are synthetic textures that preserve properties of natural images and are merely parameterized, in particular by modulating the spatiotemporal spectrum complexity of the stimulus by adjusting the frequency bandwidths. By stimulating the retina of the diurnal rodent,Octodon deguswith MC we show that the RGCs respond to increasingly complex stimuli by narrowing their adjustment curves in response to movement. At the level of the population, complex stimuli produce a sparser code while preserving movement information; therefore, the stimuli are encoded more efficiently. Interestingly, these properties were observed throughout different populations of RGCs. Thus, our results reveal that the response at the level of RGCs is modulated by the naturalness of the stimulus - in particular for motion - which suggests that the tuning to the statistics of natural images already emerges at the level of the retina.

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Molecular classification of zebrafish retinal ganglion cells links genes to cell types to behavior.

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

10.3410/f.739257478.793583298 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Lynda Erskine

Keyword(s):

Retinal Ganglion Cells ◽

Ganglion Cells ◽

Molecular Classification ◽

Cell Types ◽

Retinal Ganglion

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Developing Retina and PNS Segments for Transplantation Into the Adult Host Eye: Reconstruction of the Mammalian Visual System. 1. Methodology

Journal of Neural Transplantation ◽

10.1155/np.1989.77 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 1 (3-4) ◽

pp. 77-85

Author(s):

Michael F. Zanakis ◽

Howard F. Lowe ◽

Glenn Jacobsen ◽

Michael LaCorte ◽

Simone P. Lee ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Peripheral Nerve ◽

Visual System ◽

Retinal Ganglion Cells ◽

Ganglion Cells ◽

Retinal Ganglion ◽

Partial Reconstruction ◽

Tracing Techniques ◽

System 1 ◽

Design Experiments ◽

Host Brain

Various techniques have been explored to determine the uses and limitations of techniques that enable the adult CNS to regenerate, but relatively little attention has been given to the consideration of a "reconstructed" visual system. Using this approach, one can design experiments to study the uses of exogenous tissues in reestablishing neuronal circuits that have been damaged. Toward this end, experiments were designed to determine whether embryonic retinal ganglion cells can project axons into a grafted PNS "bridge", and enter adult host targets that were partially deafferented. Embryonic eyes of E11, E14, E18 and E21 rats were sutured to peripheral nerve segments which served as bridges between the host eye and frontal cortex. Projections between the developing retina and the host brain could then be evaluated using HRP tracing techniques. From a methodological standpoint, the preparations are 65% effective; i.e., a viable bridge results between the embryonic eye and the host forebrain. The results presented in the accompanying paper demonstrate that the technique can yield results indicative of embryonic retinal development and axonal projection through the graft and into the host brain. This partial reconstruction of the visual system may prove a useful tool in understanding the uses and limitations of grafting in the CNS.

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