TY - JOUR
T1 - Electrical synapses convey orientation selectivity in the mouse retina
AU - Nath, Amurta
AU - Schwartz, Gregory W.
N1 - Funding Information:
Grimes and S.P. Kuo for reviewing this manuscript and providing important feedback. Funding for this research comes from a Research to Prevent Blindness Career Development Award, National Institutes of Health Grant DP2-DEY026770A and a Karl Kirchgessner Foundation Vision Research Award.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, The Author(s).
PY - 2017/12/1
Y1 - 2017/12/1
N2 - Sensory neurons downstream of primary receptors are selective for specific stimulus features, and they derive their selectivity both from excitatory and inhibitory synaptic inputs from other neurons and from their own intrinsic properties. Electrical synapses, formed by gap junctions, modulate sensory circuits. Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are diverse feature detectors carrying visual information to the brain, and receive excitatory input from bipolar cells and inhibitory input from amacrine cells (ACs). Here we describe a RGC that relies on gap junctions, rather than chemical synapses, to convey its selectivity for the orientation of a visual stimulus. This represents both a new functional role of electrical synapses as the primary drivers of feature selectivity and a new circuit mechanism for orientation selectivity in the retina.
AB - Sensory neurons downstream of primary receptors are selective for specific stimulus features, and they derive their selectivity both from excitatory and inhibitory synaptic inputs from other neurons and from their own intrinsic properties. Electrical synapses, formed by gap junctions, modulate sensory circuits. Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are diverse feature detectors carrying visual information to the brain, and receive excitatory input from bipolar cells and inhibitory input from amacrine cells (ACs). Here we describe a RGC that relies on gap junctions, rather than chemical synapses, to convey its selectivity for the orientation of a visual stimulus. This represents both a new functional role of electrical synapses as the primary drivers of feature selectivity and a new circuit mechanism for orientation selectivity in the retina.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-017-01980-9
DO - 10.1038/s41467-017-01980-9
M3 - Article
C2 - 29229967
AN - SCOPUS:85043600784
VL - 8
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
SN - 2041-1723
IS - 1
M1 - 2025
ER -