An important property of visual neurons is their receptive-field size. One long-term goal of the proposed research is to understand the developmental mechanisms controlling the growth of retinal receptive fields. We recently established that one such mechanism depends on the spontaneous waves of activity that sweep developing retinas. Four hypotheses for this mechanism involve dendritic-tree growth, optimization of receptive-field size, critical period for growth, and inter-cell competition. We will test these hypotheses in the turtle retina with four aims: 1) We will use intracellular recordings and dendritic staining to test whether spontaneous waves cause receptive fields of ganglion cells to grow by enlarging their dendritic trees. 2) Turtles will be reared in abnormal light environments to test through extracellular recordings whether receptive fields grow to a size optimized to average out noise, while not over-smoothing the image. 3) Ca2+ fluorescence will help us map the waves and ask how light affects them. 4) We will test whether receptive-field growth stops because of a critical period or of an inter-cell competition by increasing the intensity of dark-reared waves though the retinal implantation of drug-laced Elvax. This study could help understand several developmental pathologies affecting ganglion cells. These pathologies include retinopathy of prematurity, retinal degeneration, refsum disease, Leber hereditary optic neuropathy, optic-nerve hypoplasia, and drusen of the optic disk. Besides understanding pathologies, unraveling ganglion-cell plasticity may help with a promising technique for one of their cures, namely, retinal transplantation. In such a transplantation, cells must """"""""self-organize"""""""" as during development.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01EY011170-07A1
Application #
6587036
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-IFCN-5 (03))
Program Officer
Hunter, Chyren
Project Start
1996-12-01
Project End
2007-07-31
Budget Start
2003-08-01
Budget End
2004-07-31
Support Year
7
Fiscal Year
2003
Total Cost
$355,576
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Southern California
Department
Biomedical Engineering
Type
Schools of Engineering
DUNS #
072933393
City
Los Angeles
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
90089
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