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Visual properties of human retinal ganglion cells

The retinal output is the sole source of visual information for the brain. Studies in non-primate mammals estimate that this information is carried by several dozens of retinal ganglion cell types, each informing the brain about different aspects of a visual scene. Even though morphological studies...

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Autores principales: Reinhard, Katja, Münch, Thomas A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7886124/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33592045
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246952
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author Reinhard, Katja
Münch, Thomas A.
author_facet Reinhard, Katja
Münch, Thomas A.
author_sort Reinhard, Katja
collection PubMed
description The retinal output is the sole source of visual information for the brain. Studies in non-primate mammals estimate that this information is carried by several dozens of retinal ganglion cell types, each informing the brain about different aspects of a visual scene. Even though morphological studies of primate retina suggest a similar diversity of ganglion cell types, research has focused on the function of only a few cell types. In human retina, recordings from individual cells are anecdotal or focus on a small subset of identified types. Here, we present the first systematic ex-vivo recording of light responses from 342 ganglion cells in human retinas obtained from donors. We find a great variety in the human retinal output in terms of preferences for positive or negative contrast, spatio-temporal frequency encoding, contrast sensitivity, and speed tuning. Some human ganglion cells showed similar response behavior as known cell types in other primate retinas, while we also recorded light responses that have not been described previously. This first extensive description of the human retinal output should facilitate interpretation of primate data and comparison to other mammalian species, and it lays the basis for the use of ex-vivo human retina for in-vitro analysis of novel treatment approaches.
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spelling pubmed-78861242021-02-23 Visual properties of human retinal ganglion cells Reinhard, Katja Münch, Thomas A. PLoS One Research Article The retinal output is the sole source of visual information for the brain. Studies in non-primate mammals estimate that this information is carried by several dozens of retinal ganglion cell types, each informing the brain about different aspects of a visual scene. Even though morphological studies of primate retina suggest a similar diversity of ganglion cell types, research has focused on the function of only a few cell types. In human retina, recordings from individual cells are anecdotal or focus on a small subset of identified types. Here, we present the first systematic ex-vivo recording of light responses from 342 ganglion cells in human retinas obtained from donors. We find a great variety in the human retinal output in terms of preferences for positive or negative contrast, spatio-temporal frequency encoding, contrast sensitivity, and speed tuning. Some human ganglion cells showed similar response behavior as known cell types in other primate retinas, while we also recorded light responses that have not been described previously. This first extensive description of the human retinal output should facilitate interpretation of primate data and comparison to other mammalian species, and it lays the basis for the use of ex-vivo human retina for in-vitro analysis of novel treatment approaches. Public Library of Science 2021-02-16 /pmc/articles/PMC7886124/ /pubmed/33592045 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246952 Text en © 2021 Reinhard, Münch http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Reinhard, Katja
Münch, Thomas A.
Visual properties of human retinal ganglion cells
title Visual properties of human retinal ganglion cells
title_full Visual properties of human retinal ganglion cells
title_fullStr Visual properties of human retinal ganglion cells
title_full_unstemmed Visual properties of human retinal ganglion cells
title_short Visual properties of human retinal ganglion cells
title_sort visual properties of human retinal ganglion cells
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7886124/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33592045
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246952
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