Flexible Neural Hardware Supports Dynamic Computations in Retina

Michal Rivlin-Etzion, William N Grimes, Fred Rieke

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

The ability of the retina to adapt to changes in mean light intensity and contrast is well known. Classically, however, adaptation is thought to affect gain but not to change the visual modality encoded by a given type of retinal neuron. Recent findings reveal unexpected dynamic properties in mouse retinal neurons that challenge this view. Specifically, certain cell types change the visual modality they encode with variations in ambient illumination or following repetitive visual stimulation. These discoveries demonstrate that computations performed by retinal circuits with defined architecture can change with visual input. Moreover, they pose a major challenge for central circuits that must decode properties of the dynamic visual signal from retinal outputs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)224-237
Number of pages14
JournalTrends in Neurosciences
Volume41
Issue number4
Early online date14 Feb 2018
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2018

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Neuroscience

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