Effects of baclofen on the directional selectivity of transient neurons in the catfish retina

Effects of baclofen on the directional selectivity of the inner retinal neurons were studied using conventional intracellular recording techniques and computer simulations. Baclofen suppressed sustained components, but enhanced transient components of third-order neurons in the catfish retina. In addition, directional selectivity of transient neurons was enhanced by the application of baclofen. The simplified network model was tested to account for the details of directional selectivity observed in the inner retina. Results suggest that the directional selectivity in fish retina could be evoked by the asymmetric distribution of GABAergic third-order neurons. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]