scholarly journals Inhibition to excitation ratio regulates visual system responses and behavior in vivo

2011 ◽  
Vol 106 (5) ◽  
pp. 2285-2302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wanhua Shen ◽  
Caroline R. McKeown ◽  
James A. Demas ◽  
Hollis T. Cline
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Optic Nerve ◽  
Synaptic Transmission ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Field Size ◽  
Visually Guided ◽  
Synaptic Inputs ◽  
Tectal Neurons ◽  
Spike Latency

The balance of inhibitory to excitatory (I/E) synaptic inputs is thought to control information processing and behavioral output of the central nervous system. We sought to test the effects of the decreased or increased I/E ratio on visual circuit function and visually guided behavior in Xenopus tadpoles. We selectively decreased inhibitory synaptic transmission in optic tectal neurons by knocking down the γ2 subunit of the GABAA receptors (GABAAR) using antisense morpholino oligonucleotides or by expressing a peptide corresponding to an intracellular loop of the γ2 subunit, called ICL, which interferes with anchoring GABAAR at synapses. Recordings of miniature inhibitory postsynaptic currents (mIPSCs) and miniature excitatory PSCs (mEPSCs) showed that these treatments decreased the frequency of mIPSCs compared with control tectal neurons without affecting mEPSC frequency, resulting in an ∼50% decrease in the ratio of I/E synaptic input. ICL expression and γ2-subunit knockdown also decreased the ratio of optic nerve-evoked synaptic I/E responses. We recorded visually evoked responses from optic tectal neurons, in which the synaptic I/E ratio was decreased. Decreasing the synaptic I/E ratio in tectal neurons increased the variance of first spike latency in response to full-field visual stimulation, increased recurrent activity in the tectal circuit, enlarged spatial receptive fields, and lengthened the temporal integration window. We used the benzodiazepine, diazepam (DZ), to increase inhibitory synaptic activity. DZ increased optic nerve-evoked inhibitory transmission but did not affect evoked excitatory currents, resulting in an increase in the I/E ratio of ∼30%. Increasing the I/E ratio with DZ decreased the variance of first spike latency, decreased spatial receptive field size, and lengthened temporal receptive fields. Sequential recordings of spikes and excitatory and inhibitory synaptic inputs to the same visual stimuli demonstrated that decreasing or increasing the I/E ratio disrupted input/output relations. We assessed the effect of an altered I/E ratio on a visually guided behavior that requires the optic tectum. Increasing and decreasing I/E in tectal neurons blocked the tectally mediated visual avoidance behavior. Because ICL expression, γ2-subunit knockdown, and DZ did not directly affect excitatory synaptic transmission, we interpret the results of our study as evidence that partially decreasing or increasing the ratio of I/E disrupts several measures of visual system information processing and visually guided behavior in an intact vertebrate.

Directional filter characteristics of optic nerve fibers in California ground squirrel (Spermophilus beecheyi)

1984 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 1200-1212 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. McCourt ◽  
G. H. Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Optic Nerve ◽  
Ground Squirrel ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Spatial Summation ◽  
Nerve Fibers ◽  
Field Size ◽  
Image Motion ◽  
Spermophilus Beecheyi ◽  
California Ground Squirrel ◽  
Preferred Direction

Directional units in the optic nerve of the California ground squirrel (Spermophilus beecheyi) were studied with respect to their response to diffuse light, preferred directions of motion, tuning for preferred direction, the relationship between spatial and directional tuning characteristics, and receptive-field size and areal summating properties. Directional units in the ground squirrel optic nerve are of the “on-off” type. No purely on or off units were encountered in a sample of 356 directionally selective fibers. The distribution of preferred directions of image motion for 356 units was significantly anisotropic; greater than 50% of the directional units prefer motion in the direction of the superior-nasal visual quadrant. Mean directional bandwidth, measured at half-amplitude response, for 39 units was 88.5 degrees. The distribution of directional bandwidths suggests that two subpopulations of directional units may exist a broadly tuned (106.4 degrees bandwidth) group preferring image motion in the superior-nasal direction, and a narrowly tuned group (59.9 degrees bandwidth) with a uniform distribution of preferred direction. Tuning for direction of motion and for spatial frequency were significantly positively correlated in a sample of 35 directional units. Area-vs.-response measures for directional units show that they possess excitatory discharge centers with a concentric antagonistic surround, plus a larger suppressive surround activated specifically by moving luminance contours, which may be asymmetric. Critical activation areas for directional units, as measured along orthogonal orientations, were highly positively correlated. This suggests that these receptive fields possess the property of linear spatial summation, not of luminance flux, but of areas of moving luminance contours.

8. The physiology and anatomy of the visual system

2017 ◽  
pp. 123-143
Author(s):  
Brian Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Lateral Inhibition ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Neural Pathways ◽  
Human Retina ◽  
Feature Detectors ◽  
System P

‘The physiology and anatomy of the visual system’ describes what we have learned from neurophysiology and anatomy over the past eighty years and what this tells us about the meaning of the circuits involved in visual information processing. It explains how psychologists and physiologists use the terms ‘mechanism’ and ‘process’. For physiologists, a mechanism is linked to the actions of individual neurons, neural pathways, and the ways in which the neurons are connected up. For psychologists, the term is typically used to describe the processes the neural circuits may carry out. The human retina is described with explanations of lateral inhibition, receptive fields, and feature detectors as well as the visual cortex and different visual pathways.

scholarly journals Differential Expression of DSCAM Guides the Patterning of Retinal Axons Along Their Path and at Their Target in the Developing Xenopus Visual System

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rommel Andrew Santos ◽  
Rodrigo Del Rio ◽  
Alexander Delfin Alvarez ◽  
Gabriela Romero ◽  
Brandon Zarate Vo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Optic Nerve ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Ganglion Cells ◽  
Retinal Axons ◽  
Topographic Organization ◽  
Retinotopic Organization ◽  
Staining Techniques ◽  
Strong Candidate ◽  
Tectal Neurons ◽  
Retinal Fibers

Abstract Background The Xenopus retinotectal circuit is organized topographically, where the dorsal-ventral axis of the retina maps respectively on to the ventral-dorsal axis of the tectum; axons from the nasal-temporal axis of the retina project respectively to the caudal-rostral axis of the tectum. Studies throughout the last two decades have shown that mechanisms involving molecular recognition of proper termination domains are at work guiding topographic organization. Such studies have shown that graded distribution of molecular cues is important for topographic mapping. However, the molecular cues organizing topography along the developing optic nerve, and as retinal axons cross the chiasm and navigate towards their target in the tectum, remain unknown. Down syndrome cell adhesion molecule (DSCAM) has been characterized as a key molecule in axon guidance, making it a strong candidate involved in the topographic organization of retinal fibers along the optic path.Methods Using a combination of whole-brain clearing and immunohistochemistry staining techniques we characterized DSCAM expression and the projection of ventral and dorsal retinal fibers starting from the eye, followed to the optic nerve into the chiasm, and into the terminal target in the optic tectum in Xenopus laevis tadpoles. We also assessed the effects of DSCAM on the establishment of retinotopic maps through spatially and temporally targeted DSCAM knockdown on retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) with axons innervating the optic tectum. Results Highest expression of DSCAM was localized to the ventral posterior region of the optic nerve and chiasm; this expression pattern coincides with ventral fibers derived from ventral RGCs. Downregulating DSCAM levels affected the segregation and proper sorting of medial axon fibers, derived from ventral RGCs, within the tectal neuropil, indicating that DSCAM plays a role in retinotopic organization. ConclusionThese findings together with the observation that DSCAM immunoreactivity accumulates on the primary dendrites of tectal neurons indicates that DSCAM exerts multiple roles in coordinating retinotopic order and connectivity in the developing vertebrate visual system.

Effects of neonatal enucleation on receptive-field properties of visual neurons in superior colliculus of the golden hamster

1980 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 595-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. W. Rhoades ◽  
L. M. Chalupa
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Field Size ◽  
Directional Selectivity ◽  
Visual Responses ◽  
Visual Neurons ◽  
Retinotectal Projection ◽  
Visual Cells ◽  
Response Characteristics ◽  
Tectal Neurons

1. Monocular enucleation in infant hamsters results in a marked expansion of the normally very limited ipsilateral retinotectal projection (13). In 34 hamsters subjected to removal of one eye within 12 h of birth, the receptive-field characteristics of superior collicular neurons ipsilateral and contralateral to the remaining eye were investigated quantitatively and compared to those of normal animals. In six additional neonatal enucleates, the density of the expanded retinotectal projection was studied with the autoradiographic method and an attempt was made to relate the anatomical reorganization with the electrophysiological findings, 2. The response characteristics of visual cells in the colliculus contralateral to the remaining eye were not significantly different from those observed in normal animals. In the ipsilateral tectum, however, numerous changes were observed. Visual receptive fields were abnormally large. The incidence of directional selectivity was markedly reduced, as were the magnitudes of the discharges elicited by either flashed or moving stimuli. Fewer cells were activated by small flashed spots and most of the units that were responsive to such stimulation failed to exhibit the surround suppression typical for the majority of tectal neurons in normal hamsters. Most cells in the ipsilateral colliculus responded only to relatively low (less than 50 degrees/s) stimulus velocities and response decrements resulting from repeated stimulation also occurred much more readily for the neurons tested on this side. 3. The results of additional experiments in neonatal enucleates (n = 8), which were also subjected to acute bilateral removal of the visual cortex, demonstrated that such damage resulted in a marked reduction in the incidence of directional selectivity in the colliculus contralateral to the remaining eye but had no effect on the responses of cells innervated by the aberrant ipsilateral pathway. 4. A correlation between the relative density of the ipsilateral retinal projection at different points in the colliculus, as demonstrated by the autroradiography and the nature of the visual responses obtained in different portions of the structure, indicated that receptive-field size was negatively correlated with the density of the aberrant retinotectal projection and that absolute responsivity (number of impulses elicited by an optimal stimulus) was positively correlated with autoradiographic grain density. 5. These findings demonstrate that while the aberrant retinocollicular projection can, along with the other visual inputs to the tectum, result in the organization of normal response properties for a small number of tectal neurons, the majority of the visual cells innervated by this pathway have responses that are appreciably different from normal.

Relationship between receptive and dendritic field size of amacrine cells in the rabbit retina

1992 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 711-725 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. Bloomfield
Keyword(s):  
Receptive Field ◽  
Action Potentials ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Amacrine Cells ◽  
Dendritic Morphology ◽  
Field Size ◽  
Dendritic Arbor ◽  
Dendritic Field ◽  
Synaptic Inputs

1. Intracellular recordings were obtained from 40 amacrine cells in the isolated, superfused retina eyecup of the rabbit. Cells were subsequently labeled with horseradish peroxidase for morphological identification. Many of these cells displayed dendritic morphology consistent with that of amacrine cells described in prior anatomic studies, including starburst, A17, AII, and DAPI-3 cells. 2. The center receptive field of amacrine cells was measured with a 50- or 95-microns-wide, 6.0-mm-long rectangular slit of light that was displaced along its minor axis (parallel to the visual streak) in increments as small as 3 microns. The extent of the receptive field was calculated as the total distance over which the displaced slit could evoke a center response. Area summation of amacrine cells was measured with concentric spots of light with increasing diameters centered over the cell. 3. For a single amacrine cell, the receptive field size was comparable to the extent of its dendritic arbor. For the total population of amacrine cells, there was a strong, linear relationship between receptive field and dendritic field size. The receptive fields were, on average, 27% larger than the corresponding dendritic arbors, but this discrepancy can be accounted for entirely by tissue shrinkage associated with histological processing and a small imprecision of the light stimuli. Area summation measurements were consistent with those of receptive fields and were also related linearly to the dendritic field size of cells. 4. These findings indicate that even when the slit of light was placed at the distal edges of the dendritic arbor, synaptic inputs activated there were propagated effectively to the soma and recorded by microelectrodes placed there. In addition, amacrine cells were capable of summating synaptic inputs distributed throughout the entire arbor. 5. These results are inconsistent with the findings of prior computational modeling studies of passive, dendritic current flow in A17 and starburst amacrine cells that synaptic inputs on distal dendritic branches are isolated electrically from the soma and that these branches form autonomous, functional subunits. 6. The majority of amacrine cells encountered displayed light-evoked and/or spontaneous action potentials. These action potentials often took the form of high-amplitude somatic and low-amplitude dendritic spikes. On average, spiking amacrine cells showed considerably larger dendritic fields than nonspiking amacrine cells. In fact, all amacrine cells with arbors greater than 436 microns, which formed 45% of the total population, displayed spike activity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Dynamics of visually guided auditory plasticity in the optic tectum of the barn owl

1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 595-614 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. S. Brainard ◽  
E. I. Knudsen
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Optic Tectum ◽  
Visual Experience ◽  
Normal Values ◽  
Interaural Time Difference ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Visually Guided ◽  
Barn Owls ◽  
Tectal Neurons ◽  
The Right

1. In the optic tectum of normal barn owls, bimodal (auditory-visual) neurons are tuned to the values of interaural time difference (ITD) that are produced by sounds at the locations of their visual receptive fields (VRFs). The auditory tuning of tectal neurons is actively guided by visual experience during development: in the tectum of adult owls reared with an optically displaced visual field, neurons are tuned to abnormal values of ITD that are close to the values produced by sounds at the locations of their optically displaced VRFs. In this study we investigated the dynamics of this experience-dependent plasticity. 2. Owls were raised from shortly after eye-opening (14-22 days of age) with prismatic spectacles that displaced the visual field to the right or left. Starting at approximately 60 days of age, multiunit recordings were made to assess the tuning of tectal neurons to ITD presented via earphones. In the earliest recording sessions (ages 60-80 days), ITD tuning was often close to normal, even though the majority of the owls' previous experience was with an altered correspondence between ITD values and VRF locations. Subsequently, over a period of weeks, responses to the normal range of ITDs were gradually eliminated while responses to values of ITD corresponding with the optically displaced VRF were acquired. 3. At intermediate stages in this process, the ITD tuning at many sites became abnormally broad, so that responses were simultaneously present to both normal values of ITD and to values corresponding with the optically displaced VRF. At this stage the latencies and durations of newly acquired responses systematically exceeded the latencies and durations of the responses to normal values of ITD. 4. Dynamic changes in ITD tuning similar to those recorded in the optic tectum also occurred in the external nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICX), which provides the major source of ascending auditory input to the tectum. 5. These results suggest the hypothesis that the neural selectivity for ITD in the barn owl's tectum is first established by vision-independent mechanisms and only subsequently calibrated by visual experience. This calibration involves both the elimination of responses to normal values of ITD and the visually guided acquisition of responses to novel values and can be accounted for by plasticity at the level of the ICX.

scholarly journals Structured Computational Modeling of Human Visual System for No-reference Image Quality Assessment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen-Han Zhu ◽  
Wei Sun ◽  
Xiong-Kuo Min ◽  
Guang-Tao Zhai ◽  
Xiao-Kang Yang
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Image Quality ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Computational Modeling ◽  
Quality Assessment ◽  
Human Visual System ◽  
Visual Communication ◽  
Visual Experience ◽  
Image Quality Assessment ◽  
Model Based

AbstractObjective image quality assessment (IQA) plays an important role in various visual communication systems, which can automatically and efficiently predict the perceived quality of images. The human eye is the ultimate evaluator for visual experience, thus the modeling of human visual system (HVS) is a core issue for objective IQA and visual experience optimization. The traditional model based on black box fitting has low interpretability and it is difficult to guide the experience optimization effectively, while the model based on physiological simulation is hard to integrate into practical visual communication services due to its high computational complexity. For bridging the gap between signal distortion and visual experience, in this paper, we propose a novel perceptual no-reference (NR) IQA algorithm based on structural computational modeling of HVS. According to the mechanism of the human brain, we divide the visual signal processing into a low-level visual layer, a middle-level visual layer and a high-level visual layer, which conduct pixel information processing, primitive information processing and global image information processing, respectively. The natural scene statistics (NSS) based features, deep features and free-energy based features are extracted from these three layers. The support vector regression (SVR) is employed to aggregate features to the final quality prediction. Extensive experimental comparisons on three widely used benchmark IQA databases (LIVE, CSIQ and TID2013) demonstrate that our proposed metric is highly competitive with or outperforms the state-of-the-art NR IQA measures.

A correlative study of the physiology and morphology of the retinotectal pathway of the perch

1990 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 367-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. M. Guthrie ◽  
J. R. Banks
Keyword(s):  
Optic Nerve ◽  
Ganglion Cells ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Evoked Response ◽  
Histological Techniques ◽  
Anatomy And Physiology ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Long Latency ◽  
Low Threshold ◽  
Local Illumination

AbstractThe anatomy and physiology of the retinotectal pathway of the perch was investigated using physiological and histological techniques. Massed responses of the optic nerve to single shocks exhibited five distinct peaks. Single-unit responses to shocks indicate two groups of fast fibers correlating well with peaks I and II of the massed response. The flash-evoked response in nerve and tectum has three major phases (PSPI-III), with a marked low-threshold fast component. Patterns of flash-evoked response from single fibers vary, but the responses of fast transient fibers coincide with the timing of PSPI, and longer latency groups with PSPII-III. Units reflexly activated by efferents were also seen, and 12% of units were photically inexcitable.Surprisingly, few fibers responded well to a scanned spot light, unlike tectal cells, and receptive fields were often large (>70 deg). ON/OFF responses, evoked either by whole field or local illumination, were much commoner than pure ON or OFF responses.Effects of electrical stimulation or cautery of the tectum on the flash-evoked response of fiber bundles, via the efferents were marginal, but repetitive stimulation or section of the optic nerve produced clear-cut deficits in the slow components of the flash-evoked response of the nerve. Stimulation of the eighth nerve produced a complex long-latency, large-amplitude response in the optic nerve.The fiber spectrum of the optic nerve taken from electron micrographs revealed the presence of a relatively small group (less than 1%) of thick fibers with diameters between 3 μm and 10 μm that could be correlated with fast responses recorded from the optic nerve, and the remainder with axon diameters down to 0.2 μm providing the slow responses. The distribution of cell-body diameters from sectioned and wholemount material indicated a marked distinction between small and large ganglion cells. The total number of fibers in the nerve was estimated 868,840.

scholarly journals Visual performance in behaving cats after prenatal unilateral enucleation

1993 ◽  
Vol 90 (23) ◽  
pp. 11142-11146 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Bisti ◽  
C Trimarchi
Keyword(s):  
Visual Acuity ◽  
Visual Field ◽  
Receptive Field ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Direction Selectivity ◽  
Visual Performance ◽  
Field Size ◽  
Electrophysiological Recordings ◽  
Severe Impairment ◽  
Orientation Columns

Prenatal unilateral enucleation in mammals causes an extensive anatomical reorganization of visual pathways. The remaining eye innervates the entire extent of visual subcortical and cortical areas. Electrophysiological recordings have shown that the retino-geniculate connections are retinotopically organized and geniculate neurones have normal receptive field properties. In area 17 all neurons respond to stimulation of the remaining eye and retinotopy, orientation columns, and direction selectivity are maintained. The only detectable change is a reduction in receptive field size. Are these changes reflected in the visual behavior? We studied visual performance in cats unilaterally enucleated 3 weeks before birth (gestational age at enucleation, 39-42 days). We tested behaviorally the development of visual acuity and, in the adult, the extension of the visual field and the contrast sensitivity. We found no difference between prenatal monocularly enucleated cats and controls in their ability to orient to targets in different positions of the visual field or in their visual acuity (at any age). The major difference between enucleated and control animals was in contrast sensitivity:prenatal enucleated cats present a loss in sensitivity for gratings of low spatial frequency (below 0.5 cycle per degree) as well as a slight increase in sensitivity at middle frequencies. We conclude that prenatal unilateral enucleation causes a selective change in the spatial performance of the remaining eye. We suggest that this change is the result of a reduction in the number of neurones with large receptive fields, possibly due to a severe impairment of the Y system.

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