PHYSIOLOGY, ANATOMY AND CENTRAL CONNECTIONS OF THE PHOTORECEPTIVE GANGLION CELL

这个子项目是利用资源的许多研究子项目之一。 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。对子项目的主要支持 子项目的首席调查员可能是由其他来源提供的， 包括美国国立卫生研究院的其他来源。为子项目列出的总成本可能 表示该子项目使用的中心基础设施的估计数量， 不是由NCRR赠款提供给次级项目或次级项目工作人员的直接资金。 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. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. 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.