A color-coding amacrine cell may provide a blue-Off signal in a mammalian retina

Chen, Shan; Li, Wei

doi:10.1038/nn.3128

Cited by 56 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…This indicates that both types of response originate from the same S-cone bipolar cell. In the ground squirrel, a sign-inverting S-cone amacrine cell that receives input from S-cone bipolars and is able to provide glycinergic inhibitory input to downstream ganglion cells has been found (21,22). These cells may thus provide the substrate to form the S-cone OFF ganglion cell.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We found that the S-cone response to increments is faster than the response to decrements, but the latter response is even slower for older individuals. The slower response may be attributable to different retinal circuitry, possibly including mediation by an inhibitory amacrine cell synapse (21,22) and/or a slow, melanopsin-containing retinal ganglion cell (16).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Aging of human short-wave cone pathways

Shinomori

Werner

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The retinal image is sampled concurrently, and largely independently, by three physiologically and anatomically distinct pathways, each with separate ON and OFF subdivisions. The retinal circuitry giving rise to an ON pathway receiving input from the short-wave-sensitive (S) cones is well understood, but the S-cone OFF circuitry is more controversial. Here, we characterize the temporal properties of putative S-cone ON and OFF pathways in younger and older observers by measuring thresholds for stimuli that produce increases or decreases in S-cone stimulation, while the middle-and long-wave-sensitive cones are unmodulated. We characterize the data in terms of an impulse response function, the theoretical response to a flash of infinitely short duration, from which the response to any temporally varying stimulus may be predicted. Results show that the S-cone response to increments is faster than to decrements, but this difference is significantly greater for older individuals. The impulse response function amplitudes for increment and decrement responses are highly correlated across individuals, whereas the timing is not. This strongly suggests that the amplitude is controlled by neural circuitry that is common to S-cone ON and OFF responses (photoreceptors), whereas the timing is controlled by separate postreceptoral pathways. The slower response of the putative OFF pathway is ascribed to different retinal circuitry, possibly attributable to a sign-inverting amacrine cell not present in the ON pathway. It is significant that this pathway is affected selectively in the elderly by becoming slower, whereas the temporal properties of the S-cone ON response are stable across the life span of an individual. O ne of the most basic properties of primate vision is that each point in the retinal image is sampled by at least three physiologically and anatomically distinct pathways (1, 2). These include a fast, high-contrast sensitivity, low-spatial resolution magnocellular pathway; and a slower, high-spatial resolution, chromatic parvocellular pathway. A third pathway, the koniocellular pathway, is color-opponent and slow, and it has poor spatial resolution. Overlaid onto the organization of these pathways are subdivisions into parallel ON and OFF systems (3). This originates at the first retinal synapse between the cone photoreceptor and the bipolar cell to give rise to the magnocellular or parvocellular pathways, resulting in further specialization and response selectivity for spatiotemporal luminance and/or chromatic increments (ON pathway) or decrements (OFF pathway). The assumption that detection of increments and decrements is mediated by separate ON and OFF pathways is supported by the work of Schiller et al. (4) in alert, behaving monkeys. During retinal infusion of the glutamate neurotransmitter analog 2-amino-4-phosphonobutyrate, which blocks synaptic transmission from cones to ON-bipolar cells but not OFFbipolar cells, there is a profound loss in the ability to detect increments but not decrements. A number of oth...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Aging of human short-wave cone pathways

Shinomori

Werner

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…An ON-type S-cone bipolar cell with an M-cone surround makes synapses with a glycinergic amacrine cell that contacts ganglion cells: The amacrine cell is excited by blue light, but excitation of the amacrine cell inhibits the postsynaptic ganglion cells. Thus, the ON response is inverted to an OFF response and its color-opponent nature is preserved (Chen & Li 2012, Sher & DeVries 2012). The above mechanisms for conveying S-cone signals to ganglion cells are apparently complemented by OFF-type S-cone bipolar cells in some species (Klug et al 2003, Yin et al 2009, Mills et al 2014).…”

Section: Lateral Inhibition Modifies Signaling By Vertical Excitatorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Circuitry of the Retina

Demb

Singer

2015

Annu. Rev. Vis. Sci.

161

131

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The mammalian retina is an important model system for studying neural circuitry: Its role in sensation is clear, its cell types are relatively well defined, and its responses to natural stimuli—light patterns—can be studied in vitro. To solve the retina, we need to understand how the circuits pre-synaptic to its output neurons, ganglion cells, divide the visual scene into parallel representations to be assembled and interpreted by the brain. This requires identifying the component interneurons and understanding how their intrinsic properties and synapses generate circuit behaviors. Because the cellular composition and fundamental properties of the retina are shared across species, basic mechanisms studied in the genetically modifiable mouse retina apply to primate vision. We propose that the apparent complexity of retinal computation derives from a straightforward mechanism—a dynamic balance of synaptic excitation and inhibition regulated by use-dependent synaptic depression—applied differentially to the parallel pathways that feed ganglion cells.

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“…Presumably, the sign of the S-cone input is inverted by transmission through a glycinergic inhibitory S-cone amacrine cell similar to those responsible for S-OFF inputs to ganglion cells that have been characterized in ground squirrels. 24,25 The 'blue-OFF' color opponency was discovered before it was recognized as the homolog to the ipRGCs identified in rodents and Dacey and Packer 26 originally named them the 'large sparse monostratified' cell and they suggested that they might be the S-OFF counterpart to the small bistratified cell and the retinal basis for S-OFF chromatically opponent cells recorded in the primate LGN. Indeed, ipRGCs may be the +Y-B cells originally observed by DeValois et al 20 in their LGN recordings; however, instead of being associated with the perception of yellow, these are the dawn-and dusk-detecting ganglion cells that primates inherited from their osteichthyoid ancestors.…”

Section: Synaptic Inputs That Introduce S-cone Signals Into the Retinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of the circuitry for conscious color vision in primates

Neitz

2016

Eye

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There are many ganglion cell types and subtypes in our retina that carry color information. These have appeared at different times over the history of the evolution of the vertebrate visual system. They project to several different places in the brain and serve a variety of purposes allowing wavelength information to contribute to diverse visual functions. These include circadian photoentrainment, regulation of sleep and mood, guidance of orienting movements, detection and segmentation of objects. Predecessors to some of the circuits serving these purposes presumably arose before mammals evolved and different functions are represented by distinct ganglion cell types. However, while other animals use color information to elicit motor movements and regulate activity rhythms, as do humans, using phylogenetically ancient circuitry, the ability to appreciate color appearance may have been refined in ancestors to primates, mediated by a special set of ganglion cells that serve only that purpose. Understanding the circuitry for color vision has implications for the possibility of treating color blindness using gene therapy by recapitulating evolution. In addition, understanding how color is encoded, including how chromatic and achromatic percepts are separated is a step toward developing a complete picture of the diversity of ganglion cell types and their functions. Such knowledge could be useful in developing therapeutic strategies for blinding eye disorders that rely on stimulating elements in the retina, where more than 50 different neuron types are organized into circuits that transform signals from photoreceptors into specialized detectors many of which are not directly involved in conscious vision.

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A color-coding amacrine cell may provide a blue-Off signal in a mammalian retina

Cited by 56 publications

References 19 publications

Aging of human short-wave cone pathways

Aging of human short-wave cone pathways

Functional Circuitry of the Retina

Evolution of the circuitry for conscious color vision in primates

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