Multiplexed computations in retinal ganglion cells of a single type

Stéphane Deny, Ulisse Ferrari, Emilie Macé, Pierre Yger, Romain Caplette, Serge Picaud, Gašper Tkačik and Olivier Marre ()
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Stéphane Deny: Institut de la Vision, INSERM UMRS 968, UPMC UM 80
Ulisse Ferrari: Institut de la Vision, INSERM UMRS 968, UPMC UM 80
Emilie Macé: Institut de la Vision, INSERM UMRS 968, UPMC UM 80
Pierre Yger: Institut de la Vision, INSERM UMRS 968, UPMC UM 80
Romain Caplette: Institut de la Vision, INSERM UMRS 968, UPMC UM 80
Serge Picaud: Institut de la Vision, INSERM UMRS 968, UPMC UM 80
Gašper Tkačik: Institute of Science and Technology Austria
Olivier Marre: Institut de la Vision, INSERM UMRS 968, UPMC UM 80

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: Abstract In the early visual system, cells of the same type perform the same computation in different places of the visual field. How these cells code together a complex visual scene is unclear. A common assumption is that cells of a single-type extract a single-stimulus feature to form a feature map, but this has rarely been observed directly. Using large-scale recordings in the rat retina, we show that a homogeneous population of fast OFF ganglion cells simultaneously encodes two radically different features of a visual scene. Cells close to a moving object code quasilinearly for its position, while distant cells remain largely invariant to the object’s position and, instead, respond nonlinearly to changes in the object’s speed. We develop a quantitative model that accounts for this effect and identify a disinhibitory circuit that mediates it. Ganglion cells of a single type thus do not code for one, but two features simultaneously. This richer, flexible neural map might also be present in other sensory systems.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02159-y

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