title: Electrophysiology Alterations in Primary Visual Cortex Neurons of Retinal Degeneration (S334ter-line-3) Rats.
abstract: The dynamic nature of the brain is critical for the success of treatments aimed at restoring vision at the retinal level. The success of these treatments relies highly on the functionality of the surviving neurons along the entire visual pathway. Electrophysiological properties at the retina level have been investigated during the progression of retinal degeneration; however, little is known about the changes in electrophysiological properties that occur in the primary visual cortex (V1) during the course of retinal degeneration. By conducting extracellular recording, we examined the electrophysiological properties of V1 in S334ter-line-3 rats (a transgenic model of retinal degeneration developed to express a rhodopsin mutation similar to that found in human retinitis pigmentosa patients). We measured the orientation tuning, spatial and temporal frequency tunings and the receptive field (RF) size for 127 V1 neurons from 11 S334ter-3 rats and 10 Long-Evans (LE) rats. V1 neurons in the S334ter-3 rats showed weaker orientation selectivity, lower optimal spatial and temporal frequency values and a smaller receptive field size compared to the LE rats. These results suggest that the visual cognitive ability significantly changes during retinal degeneration.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.|Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Xiaohua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Yihuai
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Tsz Kin
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.|Centre for Biosystems, Neuroscience, and Nanotechnology, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Leanne Lai Hang
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Chan
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D000344:Afferent Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D054707:Cyclic Nucleotide Phosphodiesterases, Type 6 / Q000172:deficiency / Q000235:genetics; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D011930:Reaction Time; D012160:Retina / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D012162:Retinal Degeneration / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055351:Retinal Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D012174:Retinitis Pigmentosa; D012243:Rhodopsin / Q000172:deficiency / Q000235:genetics; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014794:Visual Fields
chemical_list: D012243:Rhodopsin; D054707:Cyclic Nucleotide Phosphodiesterases, Type 6; C517438:Pde6b protein, mouse