title: Confronting complexity: strategies for understanding the microcircuitry of the retina.
abstract: The mammalian retina contains upward of 50 distinct functional elements, each carrying out a specific task. Such diversity is not rare in the central nervous system, but the retina is privileged because its physical location, the distinctive morphology of its neurons, the regularity of its architecture, and the accessibility of its inputs and outputs permit a unique variety of experiments. Recent strategies for confronting the retina's complexity attempt to marry genetic approaches to new kinds of anatomical and electrophysiological techniques.
authors.affiliation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston 02114, USA. masland@helix.mgh.harvard.edu
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Masland
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Raviola
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005821:Genetic Techniques; D006801:Humans; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D012160:Retina / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D012165:Retinal Ganglion Cells / Q000502:physiology; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology