We have made a tremendous amount of progress understanding sensory function. But this understanding fails to account for responses to natural stimuli. We propose to develop a mechanistic understanding of how natural stimuli are encoded in the primate retina through a combination of directed experimentation and quantitative modeling. This will encompass three aims: (1) determining the circuit mechanisms that explain striking differences in responses of On parasol ganglion cells to natural and arti?cial stimuli; (2) determining the origin, properties, and functional signi?cance of the receptive ?eld surround of retinal ganglion cells; and, (3) developing and applying new tools to reveal the importance of cone adaptation in shaping ganglion cell responses to natural stimuli.
Our understanding of how retina neurons works fails to account for responses to natural images - the stimuli for which the system evolved to work. The proposed work will improve our understanding of this issue. This is a requisite step in identifying the role of key circuit mechanisms in normal and aberrant natural vision and in the design of devices such as retinal prostheses to replicate or replace the retina.
| Turner, Maxwell H; Schwartz, Gregory W; Rieke, Fred (2018) Receptive field center-surround interactions mediate context-dependent spatial contrast encoding in the retina. Elife 7: |
