The functional diversity of retinal ganglion cells in the mouse

Tom Baden, Philipp Berens, Katrin Franke, Miroslav Román Rosón, Matthias Bethge and Thomas Euler ()
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Tom Baden: Bernstein Centre for Computational Neuroscience
Philipp Berens: Bernstein Centre for Computational Neuroscience
Katrin Franke: Bernstein Centre for Computational Neuroscience
Miroslav Román Rosón: Bernstein Centre for Computational Neuroscience
Matthias Bethge: Bernstein Centre for Computational Neuroscience
Thomas Euler: Bernstein Centre for Computational Neuroscience

Nature, 2016, vol. 529, issue 7586, 345-350

Abstract: Abstract In the vertebrate visual system, all output of the retina is carried by retinal ganglion cells. Each type encodes distinct visual features in parallel for transmission to the brain. How many such ‘output channels’ exist and what each encodes are areas of intense debate. In the mouse, anatomical estimates range from 15 to 20 channels, and only a handful are functionally understood. By combining two-photon calcium imaging to obtain dense retinal recordings and unsupervised clustering of the resulting sample of more than 11,000 cells, here we show that the mouse retina harbours substantially more than 30 functional output channels. These include all known and several new ganglion cell types, as verified by genetic and anatomical criteria. Therefore, information channels from the mouse eye to the mouse brain are considerably more diverse than shown thus far by anatomical studies, suggesting an encoding strategy resembling that used in state-of-the-art artificial vision systems.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/nature16468

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