Mouse dLGN receives input from a diverse population of retinal ganglion cells with limited convergence
In the mouse, the parallel output of more than 30 functional types of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) serves as the basis for all further visual processing. Little is known about how the representation of visual information changes between the retina and the dorsolateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) of the thalamus, the main relay station between the retina and cortex. Here, we functionally characterized responses of retrogradely labelled dLGN-projecting RGCs and dLGN neurons to the same set of visual stimuli. We found that many of the previously identified functional RGC types innervate the dLGN, which maintained a high degree of functional diversity. Using a sparse linear model to assess functional connectivity between RGC types and dLGN neurons, we found that the responses of dLGN neurons could be predicted as a linear combination of inputs from on average five RGC types, but only two of those had the strongest functional impact. Thus, mouse dLGN receives input from a diverse population of RGCs with limited functional convergence.
Date: 11 May 2018, 13:00 (Friday, 3rd week, Trinity 2018)
Venue: Sherrington Building, off Parks Road OX1 3PT
Venue Details: Large Lecture Theatre
Speaker: Professor Laura Busse (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
Organising department: Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics (DPAG)
Organiser: Sally Collins (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: hod-pa@dpag.ox.ac.uk
Host: Professor Kristine Krug (DPAG, University of Oxford)
Part of: DPAG Head of Department Seminar Series
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Sally Collins