The long-term objective of this research project is to fully characterize the retinal input to the mammalian brain. This information is essential if we hope to restore vision, either through synthetic or biological means, to those blinded through retinal diseases. Through decades of research we have learned much about how the mammalian retina encodes the visual world, but substantial gaps in our knowledge remain before realistic quantitative models of retinal image coding can be developed. The research proposed in this application seeks to fill two of these gaps. First, evidence is growing which threatens the foundation of our understanding of how the eye encodes visual information. Traditionally, retinal ganglion cells have been though to transmit neural messages by independently modulating their rates of discharge of action potentials. Simultaneous recordings from pairs or more of neurons in cats and other vertebrates have shown, however, that the spike trains of retinal ganglion cells are temporally correlated. The correlated firing events have the potential to encode more information than is possible were ganglion cells independent encoders of the visual scene. One major objective of this proposal is too determine whether a coding scheme based on correlated firing of cell groups is more plausible than one based on single cell firing for the mammalian retina. Second, a realistic model of how the retina represents visual images requires detailed information about the array of ganglion cell receptive fields and the spatiotemporal integrative properties of these fields. While we recently have very good quantitative descriptions of the spatiotemporal transfer functions of ganglion cells, we lack physiological maps of the array of ganglion cell receptive fields. Instead, we have anatomical maps of the array of ganglion cell dendritic fields. The other major objective of this proposal is to determine whether these anatomical maps can correctly substitute for the physiological maps which are more difficult to measure.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01EY006669-10
Application #
6384540
Study Section
Visual Sciences B Study Section (VISB)
Program Officer
Hunter, Chyren
Project Start
1986-08-01
Project End
2004-07-31
Budget Start
2001-08-01
Budget End
2002-07-31
Support Year
10
Fiscal Year
2001
Total Cost
$220,500
Indirect Cost
Name
Northwestern University at Chicago
Department
Biomedical Engineering
Type
Schools of Engineering
DUNS #
City
Evanston
State
IL
Country
United States
Zip Code
60201
Troy, John B; Yrazu, Fernando M; Passaglia, Christopher L (2012) The uniqueness of the message in a retinal ganglion cell spike train and its implication for retinal prostheses. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2012:312-3
Passaglia, Christopher L; Freeman, Daniel K; Troy, John B (2009) Effects of remote stimulation on the modulated activity of cat retinal ganglion cells. J Neurosci 29:2467-76
Pinto, Lawrence H; Vitaterna, Martha H; Shimomura, Kazuhiro et al. (2007) Generation, identification and functional characterization of the nob4 mutation of Grm6 in the mouse. Vis Neurosci 24:111-23
Eglen, Stephen J; Diggle, Peter J; Troy, John B (2005) Homotypic constraints dominate positioning of on- and off-center beta retinal ganglion cells. Vis Neurosci 22:859-71
Troy, J B; Bohnsack, D L; Chen, J et al. (2005) Spatiotemporal integration of light by the cat X-cell center under photopic and scotopic conditions. Vis Neurosci 22:493-500
Qiao, Yi; Chen, Jie; Guo, Xiaoli et al. (2005) Fabrication of nanoelectrodes for neurophysiology: cathodic electrophoretic paint insulation and focused ion beam milling. Nanotechnology 16:1598-1602
Passaglia, Christopher L; Troy, John B (2004) Impact of noise on retinal coding of visual signals. J Neurophysiol 92:1023-33
Passaglia, Christopher L; Guo, Xiaoli; Chen, Jie et al. (2004) Tono-Pen XL calibration curves for cats, cows and sheep. Vet Ophthalmol 7:261-4
Passaglia, Christopher L; Troy, John B (2004) Information transmission rates of cat retinal ganglion cells. J Neurophysiol 91:1217-29
Troy, J B; Shou, T (2002) The receptive fields of cat retinal ganglion cells in physiological and pathological states: where we are after half a century of research. Prog Retin Eye Res 21:263-302

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