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The Journal of Neuroscience, July 30, 2003, 23(17):6768-6777

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Gap Junctional Coupling Underlies the Short-Latency Spike Synchrony of Retinal Ganglion Cells

Edward H. Hu and Stewart A. Bloomfield

Departments of Ophthalmology, Physiology and Neuroscience, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016

We examined whether coupling between neighboring-type ganglion cells (-GCs) in the rabbit retina underlies their synchronous spike activity. Simultaneous recordings were made from arrays of -GCs to determine the synchrony of both spontaneous and light-evoked spike activity. One cell within each array was then injected with the biotinylated tracer Neurobiotin to determine which of the cells were coupled via gap junctions. Cross-correlation analyses indicated that neighboring off-center -GCs maintain short-latency (2.5 msec) synchronous spiking, whereas the spontaneous spike activities of on-center-GC neighbors are not correlated. Without exception, those off-center-GCs showing synchronous spiking were found to be tracer coupled to both amacrine cells and neighboring off-center-GCs. In contrast, on-center -GCs were never tracer coupled. Furthermore, whereas spikes initiated in an off-center -GC with extrinsic current injection resulted in short-latency synchronized spiking in neighboring off-center -GCs, this was never seen between on-center -GCs. These results indicate that electrical coupling via gap junctions underlies the short-latency concerted spike activity of neighboring -GCs.

Key words: retina; gap junctions; spike synchrony; ganglion cells; electrophysiology; coupling

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Received Apr. 10, 2003; revised May. 22, 2003; accepted Jun. 9, 2003.

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