Synchronized Firing in the Retina

项目概述：我研究的长期目标是了解视网膜如何通过许多视网膜神经节细胞的整体活动将视觉信息传递给大脑，以及这种信号如何影响健康和疾病中的视觉感知和行为。一个尚未解决的主要问题是，许多细胞的活动模式如何传递单个细胞活动中不包含的信息。其中一个重要的例子是同步放电，在这种情况下，两个或更多的细胞发射尖峰的频率要比预期的偶然频率高得多。在一些物种的视网膜中观察到大量的同步放电。然而，由于同步放电不能用传统的单单元记录来测量，所以我们对灵长类动物视网膜中的同步放电一无所知，对大群细胞中的同步放电知之甚少，同步对视觉的影响也存在争议。我们将使用独特的大规模记录技术，应用于灵长类动物视网膜，来(1)测试同步放电是否存在于灵长类动物视网膜神经节细胞中，并表征其基本特性和机制；(2)测试许多神经元的同步活动是否可以用成对同步来解释，或者暗示更复杂的电路；(3)确定同步对从视网膜传递到大脑的视觉信号的影响。我们的方法背后的基本原理是，我们已经开发的技术，包括大规模记录灵长类动物视网膜中已识别的细胞类型和测量视觉信号影响的分析方法，将定性地推进我们对同步放电的结构、起源和功能的理解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Project Summary: The long range objective of my research is to understand how the retina conveys visual information to the brain in the ensemble activity of many retinal ganglion cells, and how this signaling influences visual perception and behavior, in health and in disease. A major unsolved problem is how the patterns of activity in many cells communicate information not contained in the activity of individual cells. An important instance of this is synchronized firing, cases in which two or more cells fire spikes much more frequently than would be expected by chance. Substantial synchronized firing has been observed in retinas of several species. However, because synchronized firing cannot be measured with conventional single-unit recordings, nothing is known about synchronized firing in the primate retina, very little is known about synchrony in large groups of cells, and the impact of synchrony for vision is controversial. We will use unique large-scale recording techniques, applied to the primate retina, to (1) Test whether synchronized firing is present in primate retinal ganglion cells, and characterize its fundamental properties and mechanisms, (2) Test whether synchronized activity in many neurons is explained by pairwise synchronization or implicates more complex circuitry, and (3) Determine the effect of synchrony on visual signals transmitted from retina to brain. The rationale behind our approach is that techniques we have developed, including large scale recording from identified cell types in primate retina and analytical methods for measuring effects on visual signals, will qualitatively advance our understanding of the structure, origin, and function of synchronized firing. Relevance: Most aspects of vision involve the collective activity of many retinal neurons, so the proposed research will elucidate a fundamental function of the healthy visual system. Because the monkey visual system, and retina in particular, are very similar to their human counterparts, this work has the greatest possible potential for understanding disruption of retinal activity in disease, as well as designing prosthetic devices to replace the function of retinas damaged by photoreceptor disease.