title: Cellular and Circuit Mechanisms Shaping the Perceptual Properties of the Primate Fovea.
abstract: The fovea is a specialized region of the retina that dominates the visual perception of primates by providing high chromatic and spatial acuity. While the foveal and peripheral retina share a similar core circuit architecture, they exhibit profound functional differences whose mechanisms are unknown. Using intracellular recordings and structure-function analyses, we examined the cellular and synaptic underpinnings of the primate fovea. Compared to peripheral vision, the fovea displays decreased sensitivity to rapid variations in light inputs; this difference is reflected in the responses of ganglion cells, the output cells of the retina. Surprisingly, and unlike in the periphery, synaptic inhibition minimally shaped the responses of foveal midget ganglion cells. This difference in inhibition cannot however, explain the differences in the temporal sensitivity of foveal and peripheral midget ganglion cells. Instead, foveal cone photoreceptors themselves exhibited slower light responses than peripheral cones, unexpectedly linking cone signals to perceptual sensitivity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. Electronic address: rsinha@uw.edu.
authors.forename: Raunak
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. Electronic address: mhoon@uw.edu.
authors.forename: Mrinalini
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hoon
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.
authors.forename: Jacob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Baudin
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.
authors.forename: Haruhisa
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Okawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.
authors.forename: Rachel O L
authors.initials: ROL
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. Electronic address: rieke@uw.edu.
authors.forename: Fred
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rieke
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005584:Fovea Centralis / Q000502:physiology*; D007700:Kinetics; D008251:Macaca / Q000502:physiology*; D020419:Photoreceptor Cells, Vertebrate / Q000502:physiology; D017949:Retinal Cone Photoreceptor Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D012165:Retinal Ganglion Cells / Q000502:physiology; D013569:Synapses; D014796:Visual Perception