Types Of Retinal Ganglion Cells Research Articles

A chromatic feature detector in the retina signals visual context changes.

The retina transforms patterns of light into visual feature representations supporting behaviour. These representations are distributed across various types of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), whose spatial and temporal tuning properties have been studied extensively in many model organisms, including the mouse. However, it has been difficult to link the potentially nonlinear retinal transformations of natural visual inputs to specific ethological purposes. Here, we discover a nonlinear selectivity to chromatic contrast in an RGC type that allows the detection of changes in visual context. We trained a convolutional neural network (CNN) model on large-scale functional recordings of RGC responses to natural mouse movies, and then used this model to search in silico for stimuli that maximally excite distinct types of RGCs. This procedure predicted centre colour opponency in transient suppressed-by-contrast (tSbC) RGCs, a cell type whose function is being debated. We confirmed experimentally that these cells indeed responded very selectively to Green-OFF, UV-ON contrasts. This type of chromatic contrast was characteristic of transitions from ground to sky in the visual scene, as might be elicited by head or eye movements across the horizon. Because tSbC cells performed best among all RGC types at reliably detecting these transitions, we suggest a role for this RGC type in providing contextual information (i.e. sky or ground) necessary for the selection of appropriate behavioural responses to other stimuli, such as looming objects. Our work showcases how a combination of experiments with natural stimuli and computational modelling allows discovering novel types of stimulus selectivity and identifying their potential ethological relevance.

Specific retinal neurons regulate context-dependent defensive responses to visual threat.

While encountering a visual threat, an animal assesses multiple factors to choose an appropriate defensive strategy. For example, when a rodent detects a looming aerial predator, its behavioral response can be influenced by a specific environmental context, such as the availability of a shelter. Indeed, rodents typically escape from a looming stimulus when a shelter is present; otherwise, they typically freeze. Here we report that context-dependent behavioral responses can be initiated at the earliest stage of the visual system by distinct types of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), the retina's output neurons. Using genetically defined cell ablation in mature mice, we discovered that some RGC types were necessary for either escaping (alpha RGCs) or freezing (intrinsically photosensitive RGCs) in response to a looming stimulus but not for both behaviors; whereas other RGC types were not required for either behavior (direction-selective RGCs preferring vertical motion). Altogether, our results suggest that specific RGC types regulate distinct behavioral responses elicited by the same threatening stimulus depending on contextual signals in the environment. These findings emphasize the unique contribution of early visual pathways to evolutionally conserved behavioral reactions.

The Visual Systems of Zebrafish.

The zebrafish visual system has become a paradigmatic preparation for behavioral and systems neuroscience. Around 40 types of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) serve as matched filters for stimulus features, including light, optic flow, prey, and objects on a collision course. RGCs distribute their signals via axon collaterals to 12 retinorecipient areas in forebrain and midbrain. The major visuomotor hub, the optic tectum, harbors nine RGC input layers that combine information on multiple features. The retinotopic map in the tectum is locally adapted to visual scene statistics and visual subfield-specific behavioral demands. Tectal projections to premotor centers are topographically organized according to behavioral commands. The known connectivity in more than 20 processing streams allows us to dissect the cellular basis of elementary perceptual and cognitive functions. Visually evoked responses, such as prey capture or loom avoidance, are controlled by dedicated multistation pathways that-at least in the larva-resemble labeled lines. This architecture serves the neuronal code's purpose of driving adaptive behavior.

Subcellular pathways through VGluT3-expressing mouse amacrine cells provide locally tuned object-motion-selective signals in the retina

VGluT3-expressing mouse retinal amacrine cells (VG3s) respond to small-object motion and connect to multiple types of bipolar cells (inputs) and retinal ganglion cells (RGCs, outputs). Because these input and output connections are intermixed on the same dendrites, making sense of VG3 circuitry requires comparing the distribution of synapses across their arbors to the subcellular flow of signals. Here, we combine subcellular calcium imaging and electron microscopic connectomic reconstruction to analyze how VG3s integrate and transmit visual information. VG3s receive inputs from all nearby bipolar cell types but exhibit a strong preference for the fast type 3a bipolar cells. By comparing input distributions to VG3 dendrite responses, we show that VG3 dendrites have a short functional length constant that likely depends on inhibitory shunting. This model predicts that RGCs that extend dendrites into the middle layers of the inner plexiform encounter VG3 dendrites whose responses vary according to the local bipolar cell response type.

Distribution, development, and identity of retinal ganglion cells labeled in the Sert-Cre reporter mouse.

The mouse retina contains over 40 types of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) that differ in morphology, function, or gene expression. RGCs also differ by whether their axons target the brain.s ipsilateral or contralateral hemisphere. Contralaterally projecting RGCs (contraRGCs) are widespread in mouse retina, whereas ipsilateral projecting RGCs (ipsiRGCs) are confined to the ventro-temporal (VT) crescent of retina. In this study, we employed the Sert-Cre transgenic line, which had been reported to selectively label ipsiRGCs, to study ipsiRGCs during development. Although the number of Cre-expressing ipsiRGCs did not significantly increase with postnatal age, the region of retina that they occupied did, and by adulthood represented ~30% of the retinal surface. Unexpectedly, genetic ablation of Sert-Cre cells failed to fully disrupt ipsilateral projecting retinal axons, suggesting that not all ipsiRGCs generated Cre in Sert-Cre mice. To test this hypothesis, we retrogradely labeled ipsiRGCs in Sert-Cre mice which revealed that not all ipsiRGCs are labeled in Sert-Cre mice and a small population of contraRGCs flanking the VT crescent generates Cre in this line. These results do not negate the usefulness of the Sert-Cre mouse but do raise important caveats to the interpretation of such studies.

Role of PKN1 in Retinal Cell Type Formation.

We recently identified PKN1 as a developmentally active gatekeeper of the transcription factor neuronal differentiation-2 (NeuroD2) in several brain areas. Since NeuroD2 plays an important role in amacrine cell (AC) and retinal ganglion cell (RGC) type formation, we aimed to study the expression of NeuroD2 in the postnatal retina of WT and Pkn1-/- animals, with a particular focus on these two cell types. We show that PKN1 is broadly expressed in the retina and that the gross retinal structure is not different between both genotypes. Postnatal retinal NeuroD2 levels were elevated upon Pkn1 knockout, with Pkn1-/- retinae showing more NeuroD2+ cells in the lower portion of the inner nuclear layer. Accordingly, immunohistochemical analysis revealed an increased amount of AC in postnatal and adult Pkn1-/- retinae. There were no differences in horizontal cell, bipolar cell, glial cell and RGC numbers, nor defective axon guidance to the optic chiasm or tract upon Pkn1 knockout. Interestingly, we did, however, see a specific reduction in SMI-32+ α-RGC in Pkn1-/- retinae. These results suggest that PKN1 is important for retinal cell type formation and validate PKN1 for future studies focusing on AC and α-RGC specification and development.

Neural activity of retinal ganglion cells under continuous, dynamically-modulated high frequency electrical stimulation

Objective. Current retinal prosthetics are limited in their ability to precisely control firing patterns of functionally distinct retinal ganglion cell (RGC) types. The aim of this study was to characterise RGC responses to continuous, kilohertz-frequency-varying stimulation to assess its utility in controlling RGC activity. Approach. We used in vitro patch-clamp experiments to assess electrically-evoked ON and OFF RGC responses to frequency-varying pulse train sequences. In each sequence, the stimulation amplitude was kept constant while the stimulation frequency (0.5–10 kHz) was changed every 40 ms, in either a linearly increasing, linearly decreasing or randomised manner. The stimulation amplitude across sequences was increased from 10 to 300 µA. Main results. We found that continuous stimulation without rest periods caused complex and irreproducible stimulus-response relationships, primarily due to strong stimulus-induced response adaptation and influence of the preceding stimulus frequency on the response to a subsequent stimulus. In addition, ON and OFF populations showed different sensitivities to continuous, frequency-varying pulse trains, with OFF cells generally exhibiting more dependency on frequency changes within a sequence. Finally, the ability to maintain spiking behaviour to continuous stimulation in RGCs significantly reduced over longer stimulation durations irrespective of the frequency order. Significance. This study represents an important step in advancing and understanding the utility of continuous frequency modulation in controlling functionally distinct RGCs. Our results indicate that continuous, kHz-frequency-varying stimulation sequences provide very limited control of RGC firing patterns due to inter-dependency between adjacent frequencies and generally, different RGC types do not display different frequency preferences under such stimulation conditions. For future stimulation strategies using kHz frequencies, careful consideration must be given to design appropriate pauses in stimulation, stimulation frequency order and the length of continuous stimulation duration.

A presynaptic source drives differing levels of surround suppression in two mouse retinal ganglion cell types

In early sensory systems, cell-type diversity generally increases from the periphery into the brain, resulting in a greater heterogeneity of responses to the same stimuli. Surround suppression is a canonical visual computation that begins within the retina and is found at varying levels across retinal ganglion cell types. Our results show that heterogeneity in the level of surround suppression occurs subcellularly at bipolar cell synapses. Using single-cell electrophysiology and serial block-face scanning electron microscopy, we show that two retinal ganglion cell types exhibit very different levels of surround suppression even though they receive input from the same bipolar cell types. This divergence of the bipolar cell signal occurs through synapse-specific regulation by amacrine cells at the scale of tens of microns. These findings indicate that each synapse of a single bipolar cell can carry a unique visual signal, expanding the number of possible functional channels at the earliest stages of visual processing.

Spike desensitisation as a mechanism for high-contrast selectivity in retinal ganglion cells.

In the vertebrate retina, several dozens of parallel channels relay information about the visual world to the brain. These channels are represented by the different types of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), whose responses are rendered selective for distinct sets of visual features by various mechanisms. These mechanisms can be roughly grouped into synaptic interactions and cell-intrinsic mechanisms, with the latter including dendritic morphology as well as ion channel complement and distribution. Here, we investigate how strongly ion channel complement can shape RGC output by comparing two mouse RGC types, the well-described ON alpha cell and a little-studied ON cell that is EGFP-labelled in the Igfbp5 mouse line and displays an unusual selectivity for stimuli with high contrast. Using patch-clamp recordings and computational modelling, we show that a higher activation threshold and a pronounced slow inactivation of the voltage-gated Na+ channels contribute to the distinct contrast tuning and transient responses in ON Igfbp5 RGCs, respectively. In contrast, such a mechanism could not be observed in ON alpha cells. This study provides an example for the powerful role that the last stage of retinal processing can play in shaping RGC responses.

Synaptic Origins of the Complex Receptive Field Structure in Primate Smooth Monostratified Retinal Ganglion Cells.

Considerable progress has been made in studying the receptive fields of the most common primate retinal ganglion cell (RGC) types, such as parasol RGCs. Much less is known about the rarer primate RGC types and the circuitry that gives rise to noncanonical receptive field structures. The goal of this study was to analyze synaptic inputs to smooth monostratified RGCs to determine the origins of their complex spatial receptive fields, which contain isolated regions of high sensitivity called "hotspots." Interestingly, smooth monostratified RGCs co-stratify with the well-studied parasol RGCs and are thus constrained to receiving input from bipolar and amacrine cells with processes sharing the same layer, raising the question of how their functional differences originate. Through 3D reconstructions of circuitry and synapses onto ON smooth monostratified and ON parasol RGCs from central macaque retina, we identified four distinct sampling strategies employed by smooth and parasol RGCs to extract diverse response properties from co-stratifying bipolar and amacrine cells. The two RGC types differed in the proportion of amacrine cell input, relative contributions of co-stratifying bipolar cell types, amount of synaptic input per bipolar cell, and spatial distribution of bipolar cell synapses. Our results indicate that the smooth RGC's complex receptive field structure arises through spatial asymmetries in excitatory bipolar cell input which formed several discrete clusters comparable with physiologically measured hotspots. Taken together, our results demonstrate how the striking differences between ON parasol and ON smooth monostratified RGCs arise from distinct strategies for sampling a common set of synaptic inputs.

Electrical Input Filters of Ganglion Cells in Wild Type and Degenerating rd10 Mouse Retina as a Template for Selective Electrical Stimulation.

Bionic vision systems are currently limited by indiscriminate activation of all retinal ganglion cells (RGCs)- despite the dozens of known RGC types which each encode a different visual message. Here, we use spike-triggered averaging to explore how electrical responsiveness varies across RGC types toward the goal of using this variation to create type-selective electrical stimuli. A battery of visual stimuli and a randomly distributed sequence of electrical pulses were delivered to healthy and degenerating (4-week-old rd10) mouse retinas. Ganglion cell spike trains were recorded during stimulation using a 60-channel microelectrode array. Hierarchical clustering divided the recorded RGC populations according to their visual and electrical response patterns. Novel electrical stimuli were presented to assess type-specific selectivity. In healthy retinas, responses fell into 35 visual patterns and 14 electrical patterns. In degenerating retinas, responses fell into 12 visual and 23 electrical patterns. Few correspondences between electrical and visual response patterns were found except for the known correspondence of ON visual type with upward deflecting electrical type and OFF cells with downward electrical profiles. Further refinement of the approach presented here may yet yield the elusive nuances necessary for type-selective stimulation. This study greatly deepens our understanding of electrical input filters in the context of detailed visual response characterization and includes the most complete examination yet of degenerating electrical input filters.

Idiosyncratic responses of RGCs to injury and protection

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to investigate the responses of different retinal ganglion cell (RGC) populations to diverse injuries [transient ischemia induced by acute ocular hypertension (AOH), excitotoxicity induced by intravitreal injection of 100 mM N‐methyl D‐aspartate (NMDA) or intra‐orbital optic nerve transection (IONT)] and protection with selective agonists of the tropomyosin related kinase B (TrkB) receptor, brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) or 7,8‐Dihydroxyflavone (DHF) or with a voltage‐dependent calcium channel blocker (ITH12657).Methods: Adult Sprague–Dawley rats were used. In the first group, the left eye received a single intravitreal injection of 5 μL vehicle or 5 μg BDNF and was connected to a saline reservoir elevated above the eye to induce an acute ocular hypertension (AOH) and transient ischemia for 75 min. These rats were analysed at different survival intervals from 3 to 45 days.A second group were treated daily subcutaneously with vehicle or ITH5263 (10 mg/kg), or intraperitoneally with vehicle or DHF (5 mg/kg), starting 12 h prior to an intraocular injection of 100 mM N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) to induce retinal excitotoxicity. These rats were analysed at different survival intervals from 3 to 21 days.A third group received a left intra‐orbital optic nerve transection (IONT) to induce axotomy of the RGC population and were treated daily with an intraperitoneal injection of vehicle (0.9% NaCl containing 1% DMSO) or DHF (5 mg/kg diluted in vehicle). These rats were analysed at survival intervals from 3 to 60 days.The retinas were prepared as wholemounts and immunolabelled for Brn3a, melanopsin (m), Osteopontin (OPN) and the T‐box transcription factor T‐brain‐2 (Tbr2) to identify the following retinal ganglion cell populations: Brn3a+, melanopsin+, α‐like (OPN+), α‐ON sustained RGCs (OPN+Tbr2+), α‐ON transient RGCs (OPN+ Brn3a− Tbr2−) and α‐OFF like (OPN+Brn3a+). The labelled RGCs were quantified automatically (Brn3a) or dotted manually and quantified with a graphic software, and distribution of the different populations were represented on topographical maps.Results: Our studies document that:(i) AOH induces progressive loss of Brn3a+RGCs and a significant but not progressive loss of m+RGCs. Treatment with BDNF afforded significant long‐lasting protection for both RGC populations.(ii) Intravitreal injection of NMDA resulted at 7 days in the abrupt significant loss of Brn3a+RGCs, αRGC and αONs‐RGCs without further progression, whereas αOFF‐RGCs died massively. Both m+RGCs and αONtRGCs appear fully resistant to NMDA‐induced excitotoxicity. Both ITH12657 or DHF protect Brn3a+RGC, αRGCs and αONs‐RGCs, but not αOFF‐RGCs.(iii) IONT and vehicle treatment result in a characteristic rapid loss of Brn3a, melanopsin RGCs, αRGCs, αONs‐RGCs and αOFF‐RGCs. DHFs protect Brn3a + RGC, m + RGCs, αRGCs and αONs‐RGCs, but not αOFF‐RGCs.Conclusions: Thus, three different RGC populations (Brn3a+, m+ and α‐like) respond distinctly to different injuries and neuroprotective agents, further adding to the idea that each type of RGC has a unique response to injury and protection. Deciphering the molecular mechanisms of each RGC type will help understand neuronal responses to injury and its possible prevention.

Mapping the Retina onto the Brain.

Vision begins in the retina, which extracts salient features from the environment and encodes them in the spike trains of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), the output neurons of the eye. RGC axons innervate diverse brain areas (>50 in mice) to support perception, guide behavior, and mediate influences of light on physiology and internal states. In recent years, complete lists of RGC types (∼45 in mice) have been compiled, detailed maps of their dendritic connections drawn, and their light responses surveyed at scale. We know less about the RGCs' axonal projection patterns, which map retinal information onto the brain. However, some organizing principles have emerged. Here, we review the strategies and mechanisms that govern developing RGC axons and organize their innervation of retinorecipient brain areas.

Modular interneuron circuits control motion sensitivity in the mouse retina

Neural computations arise from highly precise connections between specific types of neurons. Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) with similar stratification patterns are positioned to receive similar inputs but often display different response properties. In this study, we used intersectional mouse genetics to achieve single-cell type labeling and identified an object motion sensitive (OMS) AC type, COMS-AC(counter-OMS AC). Optogenetic stimulation revealed that COMS-AC makes glycinergic synapses with the OMS-insensitive HD2p-RGC, while chemogenetic inactivation showed that COMS-AC provides inhibitory control to HD2p-RGC during local motion. This local inhibition, combined with the inhibitory drive from TH2-AC during global motion, explains the OMS-insensitive feature of HD2p-RGC. In contrast, COMS-AC fails to make synapses with W3(UHD)-RGC, allowing it to exhibit OMS under the control of VGlut3-AC and TH2-AC. These findings reveal modular interneuron circuits that endow structurally similar RGC types with different responses and present a mechanism for redundancy-reduction in the retina to expand coding capacity.

Diversity in homeostatic calcium set points predicts retinal ganglion cell survival following optic nerve injury in vivo

Retinal ganglion cell (RGC) degeneration drives vision loss in blinding conditions. RGC death is often triggered by axon degeneration in the optic nerve. Here, we study the contributions of dynamic and homeostatic Ca2+ levels to RGC death from axon injury. We find that axonal Ca2+ elevations from optic nerve injury do not propagate over distance or reach RGC somas, and acute and chronic Ca2+ dynamics do not affect RGC survival. Instead, we discover that baseline Ca2+ levels vary widely between RGCs and predict their survival after axon injury, and that lowering these levels reduces RGC survival. Further, we find that well-surviving RGC types have higher baseline Ca2+ levels than poorly surviving types. Finally, we observe considerable variation in the baseline Ca2+ levels of different RGCs of the same type, which are predictive of within-type differences in survival.

Inferring light responses of primate retinal ganglion cells using intrinsic electrical signatures

Objective. Retinal implants are designed to stimulate retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in a way that restores sight to individuals blinded by photoreceptor degeneration. Reproducing high-acuity vision with these devices will likely require inferring the natural light responses of diverse RGC types in the implanted retina, without being able to measure them directly. Here we demonstrate an inference approach that exploits intrinsic electrophysiological features of primate RGCs. Approach. First, ON-parasol and OFF-parasol RGC types were identified using their intrinsic electrical features in large-scale multi-electrode recordings from macaque retina. Then, the electrically inferred somatic location, inferred cell type, and average linear-nonlinear-Poisson model parameters of each cell type were used to infer a light response model for each cell. The accuracy of the cell type classification and of reproducing measured light responses with the model were evaluated. Main results. A cell-type classifier trained on 246 large-scale multi-electrode recordings from 148 retinas achieved 95% mean accuracy on 29 test retinas. In five retinas tested, the inferred models achieved an average correlation with measured firing rates of 0.49 for white noise visual stimuli and 0.50 for natural scenes stimuli, compared to 0.65 and 0.58 respectively for models fitted to recorded light responses (an upper bound). Linear decoding of natural images from predicted RGC activity in one retina showed a mean correlation of 0.55 between decoded and true images, compared to an upper bound of 0.81 using models fitted to light response data. Significance. These results suggest that inference of RGC light response properties from intrinsic features of their electrical activity may be a useful approach for high-fidelity sight restoration. The overall strategy of first inferring cell type from electrical features and then exploiting cell type to help infer natural cell function may also prove broadly useful to neural interfaces.

Optimal Burstiness in Populations of Spiking Neurons Facilitates Decoding of Decreases in Tonic Firing.

A stimulus can be encoded in a population of spiking neurons through any change in the statistics of the joint spike pattern, yet we commonly summarize single-trial population activity by the summed spike rate across cells: the population peristimulus time histogram (pPSTH). For neurons with a low baseline spike rate that encode a stimulus with a rate increase, this simplified representation works well, but for populations with high baseline rates and heterogeneous response patterns, the pPSTH can obscure the response. We introduce a different representation of the population spike pattern, which we call an "information train," that is well suited to conditions of sparse responses, especially those that involve decreases rather than increases in firing. We use this tool to study populations with varying levels of burstiness in their spiking statistics to determine how burstiness affects the representation of spike decreases (firing "gaps"). Our simulated populations of spiking neurons varied in size, baseline rate, burst statistics, and correlation. Using the information train decoder, we find that there is an optimal level of burstiness for gap detection that is robust to several other parameters of the population. We consider this theoretical result in the context of experimental data from different types of retinal ganglion cells and determine that the baseline spike statistics of a recently identified type support nearly optimal detection of both the onset and strength of a contrast step.

High-Fidelity Reproduction of Visual Signals by Electrical Stimulation in the Central Primate Retina.

Electrical stimulation of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) with electronic implants provides rudimentary artificial vision to people blinded by retinal degeneration. However, current devices stimulate indiscriminately and therefore cannot reproduce the intricate neural code of the retina. Recent work has demonstrated more precise activation of RGCs using focal electrical stimulation with multielectrode arrays in the peripheral macaque retina, but it is unclear how effective this can be in the central retina, which is required for high-resolution vision. This work probes the neural code and effectiveness of focal epiretinal stimulation in the central macaque retina, using large-scale electrical recording and stimulation ex vivo The functional organization, light response properties, and electrical properties of the major RGC types in the central retina were mostly similar to the peripheral retina, with some notable differences in density, kinetics, linearity, spiking statistics, and correlations. The major RGC types could be distinguished by their intrinsic electrical properties. Electrical stimulation targeting parasol cells revealed similar activation thresholds and reduced axon bundle activation in the central retina, but lower stimulation selectivity. Quantitative evaluation of the potential for image reconstruction from electrically evoked parasol cell signals revealed higher overall expected image quality in the central retina. An exploration of inadvertent midget cell activation suggested that it could contribute high spatial frequency noise to the visual signal carried by parasol cells. These results support the possibility of reproducing high-acuity visual signals in the central retina with an epiretinal implant.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Artificial restoration of vision with retinal implants is a major treatment for blindness. However, present-day implants do not provide high-resolution visual perception, in part because they do not reproduce the natural neural code of the retina. Here, we demonstrate the level of visual signal reproduction that is possible with a future implant by examining how accurately responses to electrical stimulation of parasol retinal ganglion cells can convey visual signals. Although the precision of electrical stimulation in the central retina was diminished relative to the peripheral retina, the quality of expected visual signal reconstruction in parasol cells was greater. These findings suggest that visual signals could be restored with high fidelity in the central retina using a future retinal implant.

Calcium Imaging in Mouse Superior Colliculus.

The superior colliculus (SC), an evolutionarily conserved midbrain structure in all vertebrates, is the most sophisticated visual center before the emergence of the cerebral cortex. It receives direct inputs from ~30 types of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), with each encoding a specific visual feature. It remains elusive whether the SC simply inherits retinal features or if additional and potentially de novo processing occurs in the SC. To reveal the neural coding of visual information in the SC, we provide here a detailed protocol to optically record visual responses with two complementary methods in awake mice. One method uses two-photon microscopy to image calcium activity at single-cell resolution without ablating the overlaying cortex, while the other uses wide-field microscopy to image the whole SC of a mutant mouse whose cortex is largely undeveloped. This protocol details these two methods, including animal preparation, viral injection, headplate implantation, plug implantation, data acquisition, and data analysis. The representative results show that the two-photon calcium imaging reveals visually evoked neuronal responses at single-cell resolution, and the wide-field calcium imaging revealsneural activity across the entire SC. By combining these two methods, one can reveal the neural coding in the SC at different scales, and such combination can also be applied to other brain regions.

Functional cell types in the mouse superior colliculus.

The superior colliculus (SC) represents a major visual processing station in the mammalian brain that receives input from many types of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). How many parallel channels exist in the SC, and what information does each encode? Here, we recorded from mouse superficial SC neurons under a battery of visual stimuli including those used for classification of RGCs. An unsupervised clustering algorithm identified 24 functional types based on their visual responses. They fall into two groups: one that responds similarly to RGCs and another with more diverse and specialized stimulus selectivity. The second group is dominant at greater depths, consistent with a vertical progression of signal processing in the SC. Cells of the same functional type tend to cluster near each other in anatomical space. Compared to the retina, the visual representation in the SC has lower dimensionality, consistent with a sifting process along the visual pathway.