The neural code of the vertebrate retina

描述(由申请者提供)：这项研究旨在详细描述眼睛和大脑是如何交流的。我们想要了解视神经纤维的动作电位编码呈现给眼睛的视觉刺激的精确规则，以及这些规则是如何由视网膜的神经回路实现的。这将通过多种方法的组合来实现：多电极阵列记录使我们能够并行地监测火蜥蜴和兔的视网膜中许多视网膜神经节细胞的视觉反应。同时，我们将使用细胞内微电极访问单个中间神经元；对该细胞的记录和刺激将揭示其在视觉处理途径中的作用。最后，视网膜光反应的数学模型将把这些观察结果整合到对电路功能的整体理解中。其具体目标是：(1)了解视网膜神经节细胞之间产生同步放电的电路机制；(2)研究注视眼球运动对视网膜加工的影响，以及神经节细胞选择差异运动的功能；(3)确定视网膜如何适应视觉环境的统计数据，以及它是否执行一般形式的新颖性检测；(4)构建能够准确预测神经节细胞从任意视觉刺激中放电的视网膜加工的数学模型。这项工作的结果将导致更好地理解视觉，以及视网膜如何在整个过程中做出贡献。它们还可能有助于未来的治疗，例如模仿视网膜神经回路功能的视网膜假体。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This research aims at a detailed description of how the eye communicates with the brain. We want to understand the precise rules by which the action potentials of optic nerve fibers encode the visual stimulus presented to the eye, and how these rules are implemented by the neural circuitry of the retina. This will be achieved through a combination of methods: Multi-electrode array recording allows us to monitor in parallel the visual responses of many retinal ganglion cells in the isolated retinae of salamander and rabbit. Simultaneously, we will access individual interneurons with an intracellular microelectrode; recording and stimulation of that cell will reveal its role in visual processing pathways. Finally, mathematical models of retinal light responses will integrate these observations into an overall understanding of circuit function. The specific aims are: (1) to understand the circuit mechanisms that produce synchronous firing among retinal ganglion cells; (2) to investigate the effect of fixational eye movements on retinal processing, and the function of ganglion cells selective for differential motion; (3) to determine how the retina adapts to the statistics of the visual environment, and whether it performs a generalized form of novelty detection; (4) to construct mathematical models of retinal processing that can accurately predict ganglion cell firing from an arbitrary visual stimulus. Results from this work will lead to a better understanding of vision, and how the retina contributes to the overall process. They may also aid in future therapies, such as a retinal prosthesis that emulates the function of neural circuits in the retina.