TY - JOUR
T1 - Two types of ON direction-selective ganglion cells in rabbit retina
AU - Kanjhan, Refik
AU - Sivyer, Benjamin
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank David Vaney for his generous support and invaluable input, and Nathan Hart for writing the visual stimulus software. The project was supported by grants to David Vaney from the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia) and the Australian Research Council (Centres of Excellence Program).
PY - 2010/10
Y1 - 2010/10
N2 - Direction-selective ganglion cells (DSGCs) respond with robust spiking to image motion in a particular direction. Previously, two main types of DSGCs have been described in rabbit retina: the ON-OFF DSGCs respond to both increases and decreases in illumination, whereas the ON DSGCs respond only to increases in illumination. In this study, we show that there are two distinct types of ON DSGCs, which can be separated by differences in their receptive-field properties, dendritic morphology and tracer-coupling pattern. While both types show robust direction-selectivity, one type responds to increases in illumination with sustained firing, whereas the other responds with relatively transient firing. The two types of ON DSGCs also have distinct dendritic morphologies: the sustained cells give rise to shorter and more numerous terminal dendrites, which are distributed throughout the dendritic field forming a space-filling lattice. In addition, the transient ON DSGCs, but not the sustained ON DSGCs, show tracer-coupling to a mosaic of amacrine cells when filled with Neurobiotin. Both types of ON DSGCs have been encountered in previous studies but were not recognized as distinct types. We propose that the two types also differ in their central projections, with only the sustained cells projecting to the medial terminal nucleus (MTN) of the accessory optic system (AOS).
AB - Direction-selective ganglion cells (DSGCs) respond with robust spiking to image motion in a particular direction. Previously, two main types of DSGCs have been described in rabbit retina: the ON-OFF DSGCs respond to both increases and decreases in illumination, whereas the ON DSGCs respond only to increases in illumination. In this study, we show that there are two distinct types of ON DSGCs, which can be separated by differences in their receptive-field properties, dendritic morphology and tracer-coupling pattern. While both types show robust direction-selectivity, one type responds to increases in illumination with sustained firing, whereas the other responds with relatively transient firing. The two types of ON DSGCs also have distinct dendritic morphologies: the sustained cells give rise to shorter and more numerous terminal dendrites, which are distributed throughout the dendritic field forming a space-filling lattice. In addition, the transient ON DSGCs, but not the sustained ON DSGCs, show tracer-coupling to a mosaic of amacrine cells when filled with Neurobiotin. Both types of ON DSGCs have been encountered in previous studies but were not recognized as distinct types. We propose that the two types also differ in their central projections, with only the sustained cells projecting to the medial terminal nucleus (MTN) of the accessory optic system (AOS).
KW - Dendritic morphology
KW - Direction-selectivity
KW - Electrophysiology
KW - Rabbit retina
KW - Retinal ganglion cells
KW - Tracer-coupling
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U2 - 10.1016/j.neulet.2010.07.071
DO - 10.1016/j.neulet.2010.07.071
M3 - Article
C2 - 20678546
AN - SCOPUS:77956151905
SN - 0304-3940
VL - 483
SP - 105
EP - 109
JO - Neuroscience Letters
JF - Neuroscience Letters
IS - 2
ER -