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The Journal of Neuroscience, April 12, 2006, 26(15):3959-3970; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5148-05.2006

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Controlling the Gain of Rod-Mediated Signals in the Mammalian Retina

Felice A. Dunn,¹ Thuy Doan,¹ Alapakkam P. Sampath,³ and Fred Rieke^2,3

¹Program in Neurobiology and Behavior, ²Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and ³Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195

Correspondence should be addressed to Fred Rieke, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, HSB Room G424, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. Email: rieke{at}u.washington.edu

Effective sensory processing requires matching the gain of neural responses to the range of signals encountered. For rod vision, gain controls operate at light levels at which photons arrive rarely at individual rods, light levels too low to cause adaptation in rod phototransduction. Under these conditions, adaptation within a conserved pathway in mammalian retina maintains sensitivity as light levels change. To relate retinal signals to behavioral work on detection at low light levels, we measured how background light affects the gain and noise of primate ganglion cells. To determine where and how gain is controlled, we tracked rod-mediated signals across the mouse retina. These experiments led to three main conclusions: (1) the primary site of adaptation at low light levels is the synapse between rod bipolar and AII amacrine cells; (2) cellular noise after the gain control is nearly independent of background intensity; and (3) at low backgrounds, noise in the circuitry, rather than rod noise or fluctuations in arriving photons, limits ganglion cell sensitivity. This work provides physiological insights into the rich history of experiments characterizing how rod vision avoids saturation as light levels increase.

Key words: adaptation; retina; rod; noise; rod vision; gain control

---

Received Dec. 2, 2005; revised Feb. 27, 2006; accepted Feb. 28, 2006.

Correspondence should be addressed to Fred Rieke, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, HSB Room G424, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. Email: rieke{at}u.washington.edu

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