title: Retinal representation of the elementary visual signal.
abstract: The propagation of visual signals from individual cone photoreceptors through parallel neural circuits was examined in the primate retina. Targeted stimulation of individual cones was combined with simultaneous recording from multiple retinal ganglion cells of identified types. The visual signal initiated by an individual cone produced strong responses with different kinetics in three of the four numerically dominant ganglion cell types. The magnitude and kinetics of light responses in each ganglion cell varied nonlinearly with stimulus strength but in a manner that was independent of the cone of origin after accounting for the overall input strength of each cone. Based on this property of independence, the receptive field profile of an individual ganglion cell could be well estimated from responses to stimulation of each cone individually. Together, these findings provide a quantitative account of how elementary visual inputs form the ganglion cell receptive field.
authors.affiliation: Systems Neurobiology Laboratories, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. Electronic address: peter.hawley.li@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Peter H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Systems Neurobiology Laboratories, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Department of Cell and Neurobiology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.
authors.forename: Greg D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Field
authors.affiliation: Systems Neurobiology Laboratories, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Department of Neuroscience, Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg 26129, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Greschner
authors.affiliation: Systems Neurobiology Laboratories, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.affiliation: Institute of Photonics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NW, UK.
authors.forename: Deborah E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Gunning
authors.affiliation: Institute of Photonics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NW, UK.
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mathieson
authors.affiliation: Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sher
authors.affiliation: Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
authors.forename: Alan M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Litke
authors.affiliation: Systems Neurobiology Laboratories, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; Department of Neurosurgery, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 94305, USA.
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Chichilnisky
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012160:Retina / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology; D017949:Retinal Cone Photoreceptor Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D012165:Retinal Ganglion Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology*