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The Journal of Neuroscience, October 10, 2007, 27(41):11019-11027; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2836-07.2007

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Identification and Characterization of a Y-Like Primate Retinal Ganglion Cell Type

Dumitru Petrusca,¹ Matthew I. Grivich,¹ Alexander Sher,¹ Greg D. Field,² Jeffrey L. Gauthier,² Martin Greschner,² Jonathon Shlens,² E. J. Chichilnisky,² and Alan M. Litke¹

¹Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, and ²The Salk Institute, La Jolla, California 92037

Correspondence should be addressed to Alan M. Litke, Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, Natural Sciences 2, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064. Email: alan.litke{at}cern.ch

The primate retina communicates visual information to the brain via a set of parallel pathways that originate from at least 22 anatomically distinct types of retinal ganglion cells. Knowledge of the physiological properties of these ganglion cell types is of critical importance for understanding the functioning of the primate visual system. Nonetheless, the physiological properties of only a handful of retinal ganglion cell types have been studied in detail. Here we show, using a newly developed multielectrode array system for the large-scale recording of neural activity, the existence of a physiologically distinct population of ganglion cells in the primate retina with distinctive visual response properties. These cells, which we will refer to as upsilon cells, are characterized by large receptive fields, rapid and transient responses to light, and significant nonlinearities in their spatial summation. Based on the measured properties of these cells, we speculate that they correspond to the smooth/large radiate cells recently identified morphologically in the primate retina and may therefore provide visual input to both the lateral geniculate nucleus and the superior colliculus. We further speculate that the upsilon cells may be the primate retina's counterparts of the Y-cells observed in the cat and other mammalian species.

Key words: microelectrode array; neural coding; primate; retinal ganglion cell; vision; Y-cell

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Received June 21, 2007; revised Aug. 29, 2007; accepted Aug. 29, 2007.

Correspondence should be addressed to Alan M. Litke, Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, Natural Sciences 2, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064. Email: alan.litke{at}cern.ch

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G. D. Field, A. Sher, J. L. Gauthier, M. Greschner, J. Shlens, A. M. Litke, and E. J. Chichilnisky Spatial Properties and Functional Organization of Small Bistratified Ganglion Cells in Primate Retina J. Neurosci., November 28, 2007; 27(48): 13261 - 13272. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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