A Pixel-Encoder Retinal Ganglion Cell with Spatially Offset Excitatory and Inhibitory Receptive Fields

A Pixel-Encoder Retinal Ganglion Cell with Spatially Offset Excitatory and Inhibitory Receptive Fields

Blog Article

Summary: The spike trains of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are the only source of visual information to the brain.Here, we genetically identify an RGC type in mice that functions as a pixel encoder and increases firing to light increments (PixON-RGC).PixON-RGCs have medium-sized dendritic arbors and non-canonical center-surround great neck chisels receptive fields.

From their receptive field center, PixON-RGCs receive only excitatory input, which encodes contrast and spatial information linearly.From their receptive field surround, PixON-RGCs receive only inhibitory input, which is temporally matched to the excitatory center input.As a result, the firing rate of PixON-RGCs linearly encodes local image contrast.

Spatially offset (i.e., truly lateral) inhibition of PixON-RGCs arises from spiking GABAergic amacrine cells.

The receptive field organization of PixON-RGCs is independent of stimulus wavelength (i.e., achromatic).

PixON-RGCs project predominantly to the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) of the thalamus tech lighting tellium and likely contribute to visual perception.