The spike trains of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are the only source of visual information to the brain. Here, we genetically identify an RGC type in mice that functions as a pixel encoder and increases firing to light increments (PixON-RGC). PixON-RGCs have medium-sized dendritic arbors and non-canonical center-surround receptive fields. From their receptive field center, PixON-RGCs receive only excitatory input, which encodes contrast and spatial information linearly. From their receptive field surround, PixON-RGCs receive only inhibitory input, which is temporally matched to the excitatory center input. As a result, the firing rate of PixON-RGCs linearly encodes local image contrast. Spatially offset (i.e., truly lateral) inhibition of PixON-RGCs arises from spiking GABAergic amacrine cells. The receptive field organization of PixON-RGCs is independent of stimulus wavelength (i.e., achromatic). PixON-RGCs project predominantly to the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) of the thalamus and likely contribute to visual perception. Johnson et al. genetically identify a pixel-encoder retinal ganglion cell type in mice (PixON-RGCs). PixON-RGCs have spatially offset excitatory and inhibitory receptive fields and encode local image contrast approximately linearly. Their axons project to the dorsolateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus indicating that PixON-RGCs likely contribute to visual perception.
CITATION STYLE
Johnson, K. P., Zhao, L., & Kerschensteiner, D. (2018). A Pixel-Encoder Retinal Ganglion Cell with Spatially Offset Excitatory and Inhibitory Receptive Fields. Cell Reports, 22(6), 1462–1472. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2018.01.037
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