CORRELATED NEURONAL DISCHARGES IN THE RETINA

本提案的目的是调查功能性 猫视网膜相关神经元放电的意义。 传统上，视网膜神经节细胞被认为是传递神经信号的细胞。 通过独立地调节它们的放电率来传递信息，但我们也 我知道细胞群可以以几乎相同的速度发射神经脉冲， 时间 这些同步触发事件是否对 传递视觉信息或仅仅是视网膜的副现象 布线仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。 我建议同时记录 从神经节细胞体和视束纤维在体内， 刺激猫的视网膜，使其在空间和时间上产生变化。 触发事件应该是刺激依赖性的，如果它们是在所有 与猫的视力有关。 具体目标是： 1)为了确定最佳刺激，以关联放电的 猫视网膜神经节细胞。 2)测量…的强度 最佳刺激诱发的神经节细胞放电的相关性。 结果将排除以下一个或多个假设： 相关放电：它们编码不同的神经信息，链接 空间的刺激特征，或者是视网膜发育的残余。

The objective of this proposal is to investigate the functional significance of correlated neuronal discharges in the cat retina. Traditionally, retinal ganglion cells are thought to transmit neural messages by independently modulating their firing rates, yet we also know that groups of cells can fire nerve impulses at nearly the same time. Whether these synchronous firing events are important for transmitting visual information or merely an epiphenomenon of retinal wiring remains an open question. I propose to record simultaneously from ganglion-cell bodies and optic-tract fibers in vivo while stimulating the retina of cats with patterns varying in space and time. The firing events should be stimulus dependent if they are at all relevant to cat vision. The specific aims are: 1) To determine the optimal stimulus for correlating the discharges of cat retinal ganglion cells in vivo. 2) To measure the strength of correlation of ganglion-cell discharges evoked by the optimal stimulus. The results will eliminate one or more of the following hypotheses about correlated discharges: they encode distinct neural messages, link stimulus features in space, or are a remnant of retinal development.