Synchronized Firing in the Retina

描述（由申请人提供）：项目摘要：我的研究的长期目标是了解视网膜如何在许多视网膜神经节细胞的整体活动中向大脑传达视觉信息，以及这种信号传导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，许多细胞中的活动模式如何传递不包含在单个细胞活动中的信息。一个重要的例子是同步放电，在这种情况下，两个或更多个细胞比偶然预期的更频繁地放电。在几个物种的视网膜中已经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一单位记录来测量，所以对灵长类动物视网膜的同步放电一无所知，对大群细胞的同步性知之甚少，并且同步性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，应用于灵长类动物的视网膜，以（1）测试是否同步放电存在于灵长类动物的视网膜神经节细胞，并表征其基本属性和机制，（2）测试是否同步活动在许多神经元是由成对同步或暗示更复杂的电路解释，（3）确定同步性对视网膜向大脑传递视觉信号的影响。我们的方法背后的基本原理是，我们开发的技术，包括从灵长类动物视网膜中识别的细胞类型进行大规模记录，以及测量对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。 相关性：视觉的大多数方面涉及许多视网膜神经元的集体活动，因此拟议的研究将阐明健康视觉系统的基本功能。由于猴子的视觉系统，特别是视网膜，与人类非常相似，这项工作对于理解疾病中视网膜活动的破坏以及设计修复装置来取代感光细胞疾病受损的视网膜功能具有最大的潜力。

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.