Single photoreceptor mapping of visual neurons in vivo with adaptive optics microscopy.

使用自适应光学显微镜对体内视觉神经元进行单光感受器映射。

• 批准号: 319029450
• 负责人: Dr. Philipp Tellers
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Vision Science Research Center
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Fellowships
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2015-12-31 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/319029450?language=en
• 关键词: Single; photoreceptor; mapping; visual; neurons

Our understanding of the neural basis of human visual perception remains startlingly incomplete, because humans and Old World primates are in many ways unique among mammals in their visual anatomy and physiology, making experimental and genetic research quite challenging. Research at the retinal level has been almost exclusively performed in tissue explants, where it is unclear how close to normal the retina is operating. At the cortical level, researchers have had to rely on assumptions about photoreceptor populations and sensitivities in each subject studied, assumptions that lately have become less tenable. A new multi-wavelength microstimulator outfitted with adaptive optics (AO) correction now circumvents these hurdles. The microstimulator allows to image the photoreceptor mosaic in real time, while simultaneously stimulating single cone photoreceptors in the living eye. Thus, not only the position but also the wavelength sensitivity (S, M and L) as well as the contribution of single photoreceptors to neural or behavioral responses can be determined. For my project, I will record extracellularly from neurons in the thalamus or cortex of macaques while activating single cones, to create the first 'cone maps' that underlie the long-familiar receptive fields of central visual neurons. The advantages of mapping at the cellular level will be (1) to learn how the signals derived from single photoreceptors are combined or transformed at various levels of the visual system, (2) to resolve several current controversies in color vision physiology (e.g. cone opponency), and (3) to provide the foundation for advances in microperimetric assessment of retinal disease and associated therapies

我们对人类视觉感知的神经基础的了解仍然惊人地不完整，因为人类和东半球灵长类动物在视觉解剖学和生理学方面在许多方面都是哺乳动物中独一无二的，这使得实验和基因研究非常具有挑战性。视网膜水平的研究几乎只在组织外植体中进行，目前尚不清楚视网膜运行的接近正常程度。在大脑皮层层面，研究人员不得不依赖于对每个研究对象的感光细胞群体和敏感性的假设，这些假设最近变得不那么站得住脚。一种新的多波长微刺激器配备了自适应光学(AO)校正，现在绕过了这些障碍。微刺激器允许实时成像光感受器马赛克，同时刺激活眼睛中的单锥体光感受器。因此，不仅可以确定单个光感受器的位置，还可以确定波长灵敏度(S、M和L)以及单个光感受器对神经或行为反应的贡献。在我的项目中，我将在激活单个视锥细胞的同时，对猕猴丘脑或皮质中的神经元进行细胞外记录，以创建第一个建立在长期熟悉的中枢视觉神经元感受野基础上的“视锥映射图”。细胞水平成像的优点是(1)了解来自单个光感受器的信号如何在视觉系统的不同水平上组合或转换，(2)解决当前色觉生理学中的几个争议(例如视锥对位)，以及(3)为视网膜疾病的微视野评估和相关治疗的进展提供基础