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Stimulus Contrast and Retinogeniculate Signal Processing

Neuronal signals conveying luminance contrast play a key role in nearly all aspects of perception, including depth perception, texture discrimination, and motion perception. Although much is known about the retinal mechanisms responsible for encoding contrast information, relatively little is known...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Rathbun, Daniel L., Alitto, Henry J., Warland, David K., Usrey, W. Martin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4759309/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26924964
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2016.00008
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author Rathbun, Daniel L.
Alitto, Henry J.
Warland, David K.
Usrey, W. Martin
author_facet Rathbun, Daniel L.
Alitto, Henry J.
Warland, David K.
Usrey, W. Martin
author_sort Rathbun, Daniel L.
collection PubMed
description Neuronal signals conveying luminance contrast play a key role in nearly all aspects of perception, including depth perception, texture discrimination, and motion perception. Although much is known about the retinal mechanisms responsible for encoding contrast information, relatively little is known about the relationship between stimulus contrast and the processing of neuronal signals between visual structures. Here, we describe simultaneous recordings from monosynaptically connected retinal ganglion cells and lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) neurons in the cat to determine how stimulus contrast affects the communication of visual signals between the two structures. Our results indicate that: (1) LGN neurons typically reach their half-maximal response at lower contrasts than their individual retinal inputs and (2) LGN neurons exhibit greater contrast-dependent phase advance (CDPA) than their retinal inputs. Further analyses suggests that increased sensitivity relies on spatial convergence of multiple retinal inputs, while increased CDPA is achieved, in part, on temporal summation of arriving signals.
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spelling pubmed-47593092016-02-26 Stimulus Contrast and Retinogeniculate Signal Processing Rathbun, Daniel L. Alitto, Henry J. Warland, David K. Usrey, W. Martin Front Neural Circuits Neuroscience Neuronal signals conveying luminance contrast play a key role in nearly all aspects of perception, including depth perception, texture discrimination, and motion perception. Although much is known about the retinal mechanisms responsible for encoding contrast information, relatively little is known about the relationship between stimulus contrast and the processing of neuronal signals between visual structures. Here, we describe simultaneous recordings from monosynaptically connected retinal ganglion cells and lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) neurons in the cat to determine how stimulus contrast affects the communication of visual signals between the two structures. Our results indicate that: (1) LGN neurons typically reach their half-maximal response at lower contrasts than their individual retinal inputs and (2) LGN neurons exhibit greater contrast-dependent phase advance (CDPA) than their retinal inputs. Further analyses suggests that increased sensitivity relies on spatial convergence of multiple retinal inputs, while increased CDPA is achieved, in part, on temporal summation of arriving signals. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-02-19 /pmc/articles/PMC4759309/ /pubmed/26924964 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2016.00008 Text en Copyright © 2016 Rathbun, Alitto, Warland and Usrey. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution and reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Rathbun, Daniel L.
Alitto, Henry J.
Warland, David K.
Usrey, W. Martin
Stimulus Contrast and Retinogeniculate Signal Processing
title Stimulus Contrast and Retinogeniculate Signal Processing
title_full Stimulus Contrast and Retinogeniculate Signal Processing
title_fullStr Stimulus Contrast and Retinogeniculate Signal Processing
title_full_unstemmed Stimulus Contrast and Retinogeniculate Signal Processing
title_short Stimulus Contrast and Retinogeniculate Signal Processing
title_sort stimulus contrast and retinogeniculate signal processing
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4759309/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26924964
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2016.00008
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