title: Pharmacological study of direction selectivity in the archer fish retina.
abstract: Direction selective cells have been found in the retina, the first level of the visual system, in mammals and recently also in the archer fish. These cells are involved in a variety of fast neural computation processes, from the control of eye movements to the detection of prey by the archer fish. The standard model for this mechanism in mammalian retina is well understood and is based on the asymmetry of inhibitory and excitatory inputs to the retinal ganglion cells. However, it remains unclear whether the mechanism that underlies direction selectivity is similar across animal classes. This study reports a pharmacological investigation designed to elucidate the mechanism that underlies motion detection in the archer fish retina. Direction selectivity in the retina was characterized under the influence of specific channel blockers that are known to be present in the different types of neurons of the retina. The results show that the direction-selective mechanism in the archer fish retina is modified only when the inhibitory channels of GABA and Glycine are manipulated. This suggests that the mechanism of direction selectivity in the archer fish retina is fundamentally different from the mechanism of direction selectivity in the mammalian retina.
authors.affiliation: * Department of Biomedical Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel.|† Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel.
authors.forename: Ehud
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pinsky
authors.affiliation: * Department of Biomedical Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel.|† Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel.|‡ Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Opher
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Donchin
authors.affiliation: † Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel.|§ Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel.
authors.forename: Ronen
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Segev
keywords: Retinal ganglion cells; archer fish; direction selectivity; pharmacology