1
|
Stasheff SF. Clinical Impact of Spontaneous Hyperactivity in Degenerating Retinas: Significance for Diagnosis, Symptoms, and Treatment. Front Cell Neurosci 2018; 12:298. [PMID: 30250425 PMCID: PMC6139326 DOI: 10.3389/fncel.2018.00298] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2018] [Accepted: 08/17/2018] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Hereditary retinal degenerations result from varied pathophysiologic mechanisms, all ultimately characterized by photoreceptor dysfunction and death. Hence, much research on these diseases has concentrated on the outer retina. Over the past decade or so increasing attention has focused on concomitant changes in complex inner retinal neural circuits that process visual signals for transmission to the brain. One striking abnormality develops before the ultimately profound anatomic disruption of the inner retina. Highly elevated spontaneous activity was first demonstrated in central nervous system visual centers in vivo by Dräger and Hubel (1978), and subsequently has been confirmed in vitro, now in multiple animal models and by multiple investigators (see other contributions to this Research Topic). What evidence exists that this phenomenon occurs in human patients with retinal degeneration, and what is the ultimate effect of spontaneous hyperactivity in the output neurons, the retinal ganglion cells? Here I summarize abnormalities of visual perception among patients with retinal degeneration that may arise from hyperactivity. Next, I consider the disruption of neural encoding and anatomic connectivity that may result within the retina and in downstream visual centers of the brain. I then consider how specific characteristics of hyperactivity may distinguish various forms or stages of retinal degeneration, potentially helping in the near future to refine diagnosis and/or treatment choices for different patients. Finally, I review how consideration of these features may help optimize pharmacologic, gene, stem cell, prosthetic or other therapies to forestall visual loss or restore sight.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Steven F Stasheff
- Center for Neuroscience and Behavioral Medicine, Gilbert Family Neurofibromatosis Institute, Children's National Health System, Washington, DC, United States.,Visual Neurophysiology, Neuro-ophthalmology and Pediatric Neurology, Retinal Neurophysiology Section, National Eye Institute, Bethesda, MD, United States
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Li L, Mi Y, Zhang W, Wang DH, Wu S. Dynamic Information Encoding With Dynamic Synapses in Neural Adaptation. Front Comput Neurosci 2018; 12:16. [PMID: 29636675 PMCID: PMC5880942 DOI: 10.3389/fncom.2018.00016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2017] [Accepted: 03/05/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Adaptation refers to the general phenomenon that the neural system dynamically adjusts its response property according to the statistics of external inputs. In response to an invariant stimulation, neuronal firing rates first increase dramatically and then decrease gradually to a low level close to the background activity. This prompts a question: during the adaptation, how does the neural system encode the repeated stimulation with attenuated firing rates? It has been suggested that the neural system may employ a dynamical encoding strategy during the adaptation, the information of stimulus is mainly encoded by the strong independent spiking of neurons at the early stage of the adaptation; while the weak but synchronized activity of neurons encodes the stimulus information at the later stage of the adaptation. The previous study demonstrated that short-term facilitation (STF) of electrical synapses, which increases the synchronization between neurons, can provide a mechanism to realize dynamical encoding. In the present study, we further explore whether short-term plasticity (STP) of chemical synapses, an interaction form more common than electrical synapse in the cortex, can support dynamical encoding. We build a large-size network with chemical synapses between neurons. Notably, facilitation of chemical synapses only enhances pair-wise correlations between neurons mildly, but its effect on increasing synchronization of the network can be significant, and hence it can serve as a mechanism to convey the stimulus information. To read-out the stimulus information, we consider that a downstream neuron receives balanced excitatory and inhibitory inputs from the network, so that the downstream neuron only responds to synchronized firings of the network. Therefore, the response of the downstream neuron indicates the presence of the repeated stimulation. Overall, our study demonstrates that STP of chemical synapse can serve as a mechanism to realize dynamical neural encoding. We believe that our study shed lights on the mechanism underlying the efficient neural information processing via adaptation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Luozheng Li
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Yuanyuan Mi
- Center for Brain Sciences, Institute of Military Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Wenhao Zhang
- Computer Science Department, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
| | - Da-Hui Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.,School of System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Si Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Puyang Z, Gong HQ, He SG, Troy JB, Liu X, Liang PJ. Different functional susceptibilities of mouse retinal ganglion cell subtypes to optic nerve crush injury. Exp Eye Res 2017; 162:97-103. [PMID: 28629926 DOI: 10.1016/j.exer.2017.06.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2016] [Revised: 12/28/2016] [Accepted: 06/16/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
In optic neuropathies, the progressive deterioration of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) function leads to irreversible vision loss. Increasing experimental evidence suggests differing susceptibility for RGC functional subtypes. Here with multi-electrode array recordings, RGC functional loss was characterized at multiple time points in a mouse model of optic nerve crush. Firing rate, latency of response and receptive field size were analyzed for ON, OFF and ON-OFF RGCs separately. It was observed that responses and receptive fields of OFF cells were impaired earlier than ON cells after the injury. For the ON-OFF cells, the OFF component of response was also more susceptible to optic nerve injury than the ON component. Moreover, more ON transient cells survived than ON sustained cells post the crush, implying a diversified vulnerability for ON cells. Together, these data support the contention that RGCs' functional degeneration in optic nerve injury is subtype dependent, a fact that needs to be considered when developing treatments of glaucomatous retinal ganglion cell degeneration and other optic neuropathies.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Zhen Puyang
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Hai-Qing Gong
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Shi-Gang He
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - John B Troy
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
| | - Xiaorong Liu
- Department of Ophthalmology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60611, USA; Department of Neurobiology, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
| | - Pei-Ji Liang
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Chen KS, Chen CC, Chan CK. Characterization of Predictive Behavior of a Retina by Mutual Information. Front Comput Neurosci 2017; 11:66. [PMID: 28775686 PMCID: PMC5517465 DOI: 10.3389/fncom.2017.00066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2017] [Accepted: 07/04/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Probing a bullfrog retina with spatially uniform light pulses of correlated stochastic intervals, we calculate the mutual information between the spiking output at the ganglion cells measured with multi-electrode array (MEA) and the interval of the stimulus at a time shift later. The time-integrated information from the output about the future stimulus is maximized when the mean interval of the stimulus is within the dynamic range of the well-established anticipative phenomena of omitted-stimulus responses for the retina. The peak position of the mutual information as a function of the time shift is typically negative considering the processing delay of the retina. However, the peak position can become positive for long enough correlation time of the stimulus when the pulse intervals are generated by a Hidden Markovian model (HMM). This is indicative of a predictive behavior of the retina which is possible only when the hidden variable of the HMM can be recovered from the history of the stimulus for a prediction of its future. We verify that stochastic intervals of the same mean, variance, and correlation time do not result in the same predictive behavior of the retina when they are generated by an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) process, which is strictly Markovian.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kevin Sean Chen
- Institute of Physics, Academia SinicaTaipei, Taiwan.,Department of Life Science, National Taiwan UniversityTaipei, Taiwan
| | | | - C K Chan
- Institute of Physics, Academia SinicaTaipei, Taiwan.,Department of Physics and Center for Complex Systems, National Central UniversityChungli, Taiwan
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Wang L, Qiu YH, Zeng Y. Coding Properties of Three Intrinsically Distinct Retinal Ganglion Cells under Periodic Stimuli: A Computational Study. Front Comput Neurosci 2016; 10:102. [PMID: 27721751 PMCID: PMC5033956 DOI: 10.3389/fncom.2016.00102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2016] [Accepted: 09/09/2016] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
As the sole output neurons in the retina, ganglion cells play significant roles in transforming visual information into spike trains, and then transmitting them to the higher visual centers. However, coding strategies that retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) adopt to accomplish these processes are not completely clear yet. To clarify these issues, we investigate the coding properties of three types of RGCs (repetitive spiking, tonic firing, and phasic firing) by two different measures (spike-rate and spike-latency). Model results show that for periodic stimuli, repetitive spiking RGC and tonic RGC exhibit similar spike-rate patterns. Their spike- rates decrease gradually with increased stimulus frequency, moreover, variation of stimulus amplitude would change the two RGCs' spike-rate patterns. For phasic RGC, it activates strongly at medium levels of frequency when the stimulus amplitude is low. While if high stimulus amplitude is applied, phasic RGC switches to respond strongly at low frequencies. These results suggest that stimulus amplitude is a prominent factor in regulating RGCs in encoding periodic signals. Similar conclusions can be drawn when analyzes spike-latency patterns of the three RGCs. More importantly, the above phenomena can be accurately reproduced by Hodgkin's three classes of neurons, indicating that RGCs can perform the typical three classes of firing dynamics, depending on the distinctions of ion channel densities. Consequently, model results from the three RGCs may be not specific, but can also applicable to neurons in other brain regions which exhibit part(s) or all of the Hodgkin's three excitabilities.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lei Wang
- Neuroscience and Intelligent Media Institute, Communication University of China Beijing, China
| | - Yi-Hong Qiu
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China
| | - Yanjun Zeng
- Biomedical Engineering Center, Beijing University of Technology Beijing, China
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Yan RJ, Gong HQ, Zhang PM, Liang PJ. Coding Properties of Mouse Retinal Ganglion Cells with Dual-Peak Patterns with Respect to Stimulus Intervals. Front Comput Neurosci 2016; 10:75. [PMID: 27486396 PMCID: PMC4949255 DOI: 10.3389/fncom.2016.00075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2016] [Accepted: 07/05/2016] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
How visual information is encoded in spikes of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) is essential in visual neuroscience. In the present study, we investigated the coding properties of mouse RGCs with dual-peak patterns with respect to visual stimulus intervals. We first analyzed the response properties, and observed that the latencies and spike counts of the two response peaks in the dual-peak pattern exhibited systematic changes with the preceding light-OFF interval. We then applied linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to assess the relative contributions of response characteristics of both peaks in information coding regarding the preceding stimulus interval. It was found that for each peak, the discrimination results were far better than chance level based on either latency or spike count, and were further improved by using the combination of the two parameters. Furthermore, the best discrimination results were obtained when latencies and spike counts of both peaks were considered in combination. In addition, the correct rate for stimulation discrimination was higher when RGC population activity was considered as compare to single neuron's activity, and the correct rate was increased with the group size. These results suggest that rate coding, temporal coding, and population coding are all involved in encoding the different stimulus-interval patterns, and the two response peaks in the dual-peak pattern carry complementary information about stimulus interval.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ru-Jia Yan
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China
| | - Hai-Qing Gong
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China
| | - Pu-Ming Zhang
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China
| | - Pei-Ji Liang
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Harris H, Sagi D. Effects of spatiotemporal consistencies on visual learning dynamics and transfer. Vision Res 2015; 109:77-86. [DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2015.02.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2014] [Revised: 02/20/2015] [Accepted: 02/23/2015] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
|
8
|
Trenholm S, McLaughlin AJ, Schwab DJ, Turner MH, Smith RG, Rieke F, Awatramani GB. Nonlinear dendritic integration of electrical and chemical synaptic inputs drives fine-scale correlations. Nat Neurosci 2014; 17:1759-66. [PMID: 25344631 PMCID: PMC4265022 DOI: 10.1038/nn.3851] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2014] [Accepted: 10/01/2014] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Throughout the CNS, gap junction-mediated electrical signals synchronize neural activity on millisecond timescales via cooperative interactions with chemical synapses. However, gap junction-mediated synchrony has rarely been studied in the context of varying spatiotemporal patterns of electrical and chemical synaptic activity. Thus, the mechanism underlying fine-scale synchrony and its relationship to neural coding remain unclear. We examined spike synchrony in pairs of genetically identified, electrically coupled ganglion cells in mouse retina. We found that coincident electrical and chemical synaptic inputs, but not electrical inputs alone, elicited synchronized dendritic spikes in subregions of coupled dendritic trees. The resulting nonlinear integration produced fine-scale synchrony in the cells' spike output, specifically for light stimuli driving input to the regions of dendritic overlap. In addition, the strength of synchrony varied inversely with spike rate. Together, these features may allow synchronized activity to encode information about the spatial distribution of light that is ambiguous on the basis of spike rate alone.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Stuart Trenholm
- Department of Biology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Amanda J McLaughlin
- Department of Biology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
| | - David J Schwab
- Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
| | - Maxwell H Turner
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - Robert G Smith
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Fred Rieke
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - Gautam B Awatramani
- Department of Biology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Xiao L, Gong HY, Gong HQ, Liang PJ, Zhang PM. Response properties of ON–OFF retinal ganglion cells to high-order stimulus statistics. Neurosci Lett 2014; 582:43-8. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2014.08.047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2014] [Revised: 08/18/2014] [Accepted: 08/27/2014] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
|
10
|
Xiao L, Zhang PM, Gong HQ, Liang PJ. Effects of dopamine on response properties of ON-OFF RGCs in encoding stimulus durations. Front Neural Circuits 2014; 8:72. [PMID: 25071453 PMCID: PMC4074994 DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2014.00072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2013] [Accepted: 06/12/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Single retinal ganglion cell's (RGCs) response properties, such as spike count and response latency, are known to encode some features of visual stimuli. On the other hand, neuronal response can be modulated by dopamine (DA), an important endogenous neuromodulator in the retina. In the present study, we investigated the effects of DA on the spike count and the response latency of bullfrog ON-OFF RGCs during exposure to different stimulus durations. We found that neuronal spike count and response latency were both changed with stimulus durations, and exogenous DA (10 μM) obviously attenuated the stimulus-duration-dependent response latency change. Information analysis showed that the information about light ON duration was mainly carried by the OFF response and vice versa, and the stimulation information was carried by both spike count and response latency. However, during DA application, the information carried by the response latency was greatly decreased, which suggests that dopaminergic pathway is involved in modulating the role of response latency in encoding the information about stimulus durations.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lei Xiao
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China
| | - Pu-Ming Zhang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China
| | - Hai-Qing Gong
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China
| | - Pei-Ji Liang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Xiao L, Zhang PM, Wu S, Liang PJ. Response dynamics of bullfrog ON-OFF RGCs to different stimulus durations. J Comput Neurosci 2014; 37:149-60. [PMID: 24390227 DOI: 10.1007/s10827-013-0492-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2013] [Revised: 10/31/2013] [Accepted: 12/19/2013] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Stimulus duration is an important feature of visual stimulation. In the present study, response properties of bullfrog ON-OFF retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in exposure to different visual stimulus durations were studied. By using a multi-electrode recording system, spike discharges from ON-OFF RGCs were simultaneously recorded, and the cells' ON and OFF responses were analyzed. It was found that the ON response characteristics, including response latency, spike count, as well as correlated activity and relative latency between pair-wise cells, were modulated by different light OFF intervals, while the OFF response characteristics were modulated by different light ON durations. Stimulus information carried by the ON and OFF responses was then analyzed, and it was found that information about different light ON durations was more carried by transient OFF response, whereas information about different light OFF intervals were more carried by transient ON response. Meanwhile, more than 80 % information about stimulus durations was carried by firing rate. These results suggest that ON-OFF RGCs are sensitive to different stimulus durations, and they can efficiently encode the information about visual stimulus duration by firing rate.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Lei Xiao
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Road, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|