Document Detail


Separability of stimulus parameter encoding by on-off directionally selective rabbit retinal ganglion cells.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  21325684     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
The ganglion cell output of the retina constitutes a bottleneck in sensory processing in that ganglion cells must encode multiple stimulus parameters in their responses. Here we investigate encoding strategies of On-Off directionally selective retinal ganglion cells (On-Off DS RGCs) in rabbits, a class of cells dedicated to representing motion. The exquisite axial discrimination of these cells to preferred vs. null direction motion is well documented: it is invariant with respect to speed, contrast, spatial configuration, spatial frequency, and motion extent. However, these cells have broad direction tuning curves and their responses also vary as a function of other parameters such as speed and contrast. In this study, we examined whether the variation in responses across multiple stimulus parameters is systematic, that is the same for all cells, and separable, such that the response to a stimulus is a product of the effects of each stimulus parameter alone. We extracellularly recorded single On-Off DS RGCs in a superfused eyecup preparation while stimulating them with moving bars. We found that spike count responses of these cells scaled as independent functions of direction, speed, and luminance. Moreover, the speed and luminance functions were common across the whole sample of cells. Based on these findings, we developed a model that accurately predicted responses of On-Off DS RGCs as products of separable functions of direction, speed, and luminance (r = 0.98; P < 0.0001). Such a multiplicatively separable encoding strategy may simplify the decoding of these cells' outputs by the higher visual centers.
Authors:
Przemyslaw Nowak; Allan C Dobbins; Timothy J Gawne; Norberto M Grzywacz; Franklin R Amthor
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.     Date:  2011-02-16
Journal Detail:
Title:  Journal of neurophysiology     Volume:  105     ISSN:  1522-1598     ISO Abbreviation:  J. Neurophysiol.     Publication Date:  2011 May 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2011-05-18     Completed Date:  2012-04-17     Revised Date:  2012-05-01    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  0375404     Medline TA:  J Neurophysiol     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  2083-99     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Department of Vision Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-1170, USA.
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Action Potentials / physiology*
Animals
Female
Male
Motion Perception / physiology*
Photic Stimulation / methods*
Rabbits
Retinal Ganglion Cells / physiology*
Visual Fields / physiology
Grant Support
ID/Acronym/Agency:
P30-EY-03039/EY/NEI NIH HHS

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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