Morphology and topography of on- and off-alpha cells in the cat retina

Wässle, Heinz; Peichl, Leo; Boycott, B. B.

doi:10.1098/rspb.1981.0032

Cited by 260 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Moreover, although some types do tile (Dacey, 1989;Vaney, 1994), the dendritic tips of a cell typically reach the neighboring somas as shown here for guinea pig (Fig. 2 A) and elsewhere for cat (Wassle et al, 1981b;Cohen and Sterling, 1992;Stein et al, 1996), ferret (Lohmann and Wong, 2001), and primate (Dacey and Brace, 1992). Thus, tiling is a special case and dendritic overlap (coverage factor of ϳ3-4) is the rule (Wassle, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Design of a Neuronal Array

et al. 2008

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Retinal ganglion cells of a given type overlap their dendritic fields such that every point in space is covered by three to four cells. We investigated what function is served by such extensive overlap. Recording from pairs of ON or OFF brisk-transient ganglion cells at photopic intensities, we confirmed that this overlap causes the Gaussian receptive field centers to be spaced at ϳ2 SDs (). This, together with response nonlinearities and variability, was just sufficient to provide an ideal observer with uniform contrast sensitivity across the retina for both threshold and suprathreshold stimuli. We hypothesized that overlap might maximize the information represented from natural images, thereby optimizing retinal performance for many tasks. Indeed, tested with natural images (which contain statistical correlations), a model ganglion cell array maximized information represented in its population responses with ϳ2 spacing, i.e., the overlap observed in the retina. Yet, tested with white noise (which lacks statistical correlations), an array maximized its information by minimizing overlap. In both cases, optimal overlap balanced greater signal-to-noise ratio (from larger receptive fields) against greater redundancy (because of larger receptive field overlap). Thus, dendritic overlap improves vision by taking optimal advantage of the statistical correlations of natural scenes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Design of a Neuronal Array

et al. 2008

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“…Other examples of this form of dendritic control have been suggested (Wässle et al, 1981;Perry and Linden, 1982;Amthor and Oyster, 1995;Grueber et al, 2003), but recent evidence now calls into question this mechanism, at least for two types of retinal ganglion cell (Lin et al, 2004) and for cholinergic amacrine cells (Farajian et al, 2004). How the horizontal cells, with a coverage factor of ϳ6 -7, coordinate their growth to achieve this dendritic coverage across a wide variation in density between different strains of mice is presently unclear.…”

Section: Dendritic Field Area Is Scaled To Densitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Afferents and Homotypic Neighbors Regulate Horizontal Cell Morphology, Connectivity, and Retinal Coverage

Reese¹,

Raven²,

Stagg³

2005

J. Neurosci.

101

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Horizontal cells are inhibitory interneurons with laterally oriented dendrites that overlap one another, contacting the pedicles of cone photoreceptors. Because of their regular spacing, the network of horizontal cells provides a uniform coverage of the retinal surface. The developmental processes establishing these network properties are undefined, but cell-intrinsic instructions and interactions with other cells have each been suggested to play a role. Here, we show that the intercellular spacing of horizontal cells is essentially independent of genetic background and is predicted by local density, suggesting that horizontal cell positioning is modulated by proximity to other horizontal cells. Dendritic field area compensates for this variation in intercellular spacing, maintaining constant dendritic coverage between strains. Functional dendritic overlap is achieved anatomically at the level of the pedicles, where horizontal cells interact with one another to establish their connectivity: the number of dendritic terminals contacting a pedicle changes, reciprocally, between neighboring horizontal cells during development based on their relative proximity to each pedicle. Cellular morphology is also shown to be regulated by the afferents themselves: afferent elimination before innervation does not alter dendritic field size nor stratification but compromises dendritic branching and prevents terminal formation. Afferent and homotypic interactions therefore generate the morphology, spacing, and connectivity of horizontal cells underlying their functional coverage of the retina.

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“…Furthermore, both cell types are morphologically similar (Dacey, 2004;Yamada et al, 2005) to the intensively studied cat ␣-cells (Boycott and Wassle, 1974;Wassle et al, 1981). Therefore, in what follows, we will consider them as a single cell type that has been given different names by different investigators.…”

Section: Possible Morphological Correlate Of the Upsilon Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification and Characterization of a Y-Like Primate Retinal Ganglion Cell Type

Petrusca

Grivich²,

Sher³

et al. 2007

J. Neurosci.

152

227

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The primate retina communicates visual information to the brain via a set of parallel pathways that originate from at least 22 anatomically distinct types of retinal ganglion cells. Knowledge of the physiological properties of these ganglion cell types is of critical importance for understanding the functioning of the primate visual system. Nonetheless, the physiological properties of only a handful of retinal ganglion cell types have been studied in detail. Here we show, using a newly developed multielectrode array system for the large-scale recording of neural activity, the existence of a physiologically distinct population of ganglion cells in the primate retina with distinctive visual response properties. These cells, which we will refer to as upsilon cells, are characterized by large receptive fields, rapid and transient responses to light, and significant nonlinearities in their spatial summation. Based on the measured properties of these cells, we speculate that they correspond to the smooth/large radiate cells recently identified morphologically in the primate retina and may therefore provide visual input to both the lateral geniculate nucleus and the superior colliculus. We further speculate that the upsilon cells may be the primate retina's counterparts of the Y-cells observed in the cat and other mammalian species.

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Morphology and topography of on- and off-alpha cells in the cat retina

Cited by 260 publications

References 9 publications

Design of a Neuronal Array

Design of a Neuronal Array

Afferents and Homotypic Neighbors Regulate Horizontal Cell Morphology, Connectivity, and Retinal Coverage

Identification and Characterization of a Y-Like Primate Retinal Ganglion Cell Type

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