51. Ambient illumination toggles a neuronal circuit switch in the retina and visual perception at cone threshold
- Author
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Keisuke Yonehara, Tamas Szikra, Kamill Balint, Karl Farrow, Miguel Teixeira, Tim J. Viney, and Botond Roska
- Subjects
Retinal Ganglion Cells ,Patch-Clamp Techniques ,Visual perception ,genetic structures ,Neuroscience(all) ,Action Potentials ,Mice, Transgenic ,Sensory system ,Herpesvirus 1, Human ,Biology ,Inhibitory postsynaptic potential ,Connexins ,Retina ,Choline O-Acetyltransferase ,Mice ,03 medical and health sciences ,Imaging, Three-Dimensional ,0302 clinical medicine ,medicine ,Animals ,Humans ,Visual Pathways ,Lighting ,030304 developmental biology ,0303 health sciences ,General Neuroscience ,Neural Inhibition ,Parvalbumins ,Electrical Synapses ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Retinal ganglion cell ,Receptive field ,Retinal Cone Photoreceptor Cells ,Visual Perception ,Excitatory postsynaptic potential ,sense organs ,Nerve Net ,Neuroscience ,Photic Stimulation ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
Summary Gradual changes in the sensory environment can lead to abrupt changes in brain computations and perception. However, mechanistic understanding of the mediating microcircuits is missing. By sliding through light levels from starlight to daylight, we identify retinal ganglion cell types in the mouse that abruptly and reversibly switch the weighting of center and surround interactions in their receptive field around cone threshold. Two-photon-targeted recordings and genetic and viral tracing experiments revealed that the circuit element responsible for the switch is a large inhibitory neuron that provides direct inhibition to ganglion cells. Our experiments suggest that weak excitatory input via electrical synapses together with the spiking threshold in inhibitory cells act as a switch. We also reveal a switch-like component in the spatial integration properties of human vision at cone threshold. This work demonstrates that circuits in the retina can quickly and reversibly switch between two distinct states, implementing distinct perceptual regimes at different light levels. Video Abstract
- Published
- 2013
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