Cellular Origin of Spontaneous Ganglion Cell Spike Activity in Animal Models of Retinitis Pigmentosa

Here we review evidence that loss of photoreceptors due to degenerative retinal disease causes an increase in the rate of spontaneous ganglion spike discharge. Information about persistent spike activity is important since it is expected to add noise to the communication between the eye and the brain and thus impact the design and effective use of retinal prosthetics for restoring visual function in patients blinded by disease. Patch-clamp recordings from identified types of ON and OFF retinal ganglion cells in the adult (36–210 d old) rd1 mouse show that the ongoing oscillatory spike activity in both cell types is driven by strong rhythmic synaptic input from presynaptic neurons that is blocked by CNQX. The recurrent synaptic activity may arise in a negative feedback loop between a bipolar cell and an amacrine cell that exhibits resonant behavior and oscillations in membrane potential when the normal balance between excitation and inhibition is disrupted by the absence of photoreceptor input.