PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY AND CENTRAL CONNECTIONS OF THE PHOTORECEPTIVE GANGLION CELL

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中利用 资源由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。子项目和 调查员(PI)可能从NIH的另一个来源获得了主要资金， 并因此可以在其他清晰的条目中表示。列出的机构是 该中心不一定是调查人员的机构。 我们的目标是描述一种独特的神经节细胞群，它包含一种新的光色素并具有内在的光敏性；这些神经节细胞在调节人类昼夜节律、驱动瞳孔光反射方面发挥关键作用，并可能参与颜色感知。这个项目标志着分析新的视觉通路和光色素的第一步，这是以前在灵长类视觉系统中没有认识到的。我们已经启动了一个与King-Wai Yau合作的项目，使用了一种针对可能的黑色素的人抗体，现在已经确定了这些神经节细胞在猕猴和人类视网膜中的详细形态和空间分布。用逆行光动力学方法，我们已经开始确定这些细胞的中心靶点，显示这些细胞广泛投射到上丘、外侧膝状体核以及顶盖前橄榄核。我们在体外针对这些细胞进行了详细的生理分析，并表征了锥体输入、视杆输入以及内在光反应的光谱调谐和动力学。细胞内的记录显示，固有信号和视锥介导的信号汇聚在一起，赋予了这个神经节细胞独特的亮度编码和染色特性。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The goal is to characterize a unique ganglion cell population that contains a novel photopigment and is intrinsically photosensitive; these ganglion cells play a key role in entraining human circadian rhythms, driving the pupillary light reflex and may also participate in color perception. This project marks the first steps in the analysis of novel visual pathway and photopigment, not previously recognized in the primate visual system. We have started a collaborative project with King-Wai Yau, employing a human antibody to the putative photopigment melanopsin, and have now determined the detailed morphology and spatial distribution of these ganglion cells in both macaque and human retina. Using retrograde photodynamics we have begun to define the central targets of these cells, showing that these cells project widely to both the superior colliculus and lateral geniculate nucleus as well as the pretectal olivary nucleus. We have targeted these cells in vitro for detailed physiological analysis and have characterized cone inputs, rod inputs and the spectral tuning and dynamics of the intrinsic light response. Intracellular recordings show that both the intrinsic and cone-mediated signals converge to confer unique luminance coding and chromatic properties to this ganglion cell.