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The Journal of Neuroscience, September 1, 2002, 22(17):7712-7720

Diverse Synaptic Mechanisms Generate Direction Selectivity in the Rabbit Retina

W. Rowland Taylor¹ and David I. Vaney²

¹ John Curtin School of Medical Research and Centre for Visual Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, 2601 ACT, Australia, and ² Vision, Touch and Hearing Research Centre, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia

The synaptic conductance of the On-Off direction-selective ganglion cells was measured during visual stimulation to determine whether the direction selectivity is a property of the circuitry presynaptic to the ganglion cells or is generated by postsynaptic interaction of excitatory and inhibitory inputs. Three synaptic asymmetries were identified that contribute to the generation of direction-selective responses: (1) a presynaptic mechanism producing stronger excitation in the preferred direction, (2) a presynaptic mechanism producing stronger inhibition in the opposite direction, and (3) postsynaptic interaction of excitation with spatially offset inhibition. Although the on- and off-responses showed the same directional tuning, the off-response was generated by all three mechanisms, whereas the on-response was generated primarily by the two presynaptic mechanisms. The results indicate that, within a single neuron, different strategies are used within distinct dendritic arbors to accomplish the same neural computation.

Key words: direction selectivity; ganglion cells; synaptic conductance; inhibition; excitation; dendritic integration; on- and off-pathways; rabbit retina

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Copyright © 2002 Society for Neuroscience  0270-6474/02/22177712-09$05.00/0

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