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Retinal output changes qualitatively with every change in ambient illuminance.

ABSTRACT: The collective activity pattern of retinal ganglion cells, the retinal code, underlies higher visual processing. How does the ambient illuminance of the visual scene influence this retinal output? We recorded from isolated mouse and pig retina and from mouse dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus in vivo at up to seven ambient light levels covering the scotopic to photopic regimes. Across each luminance transition, most ganglion cells exhibited qualitative response changes, whereas they maintained stable responses within each luminance. We commonly observed the appearance and disappearance of ON responses in OFF cells and vice versa. Such qualitative response changes occurred for a variety of stimuli, including full-field and localized contrast steps and naturalistic movies. Our results suggest that the retinal code is not fixed but varies with every change of ambient luminance. This finding raises questions about signal processing within the retina and has implications for visual processing in higher brain areas.

SUBMITTER: Tikidji-Hamburyan A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4338531 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Retinal output changes qualitatively with every change in ambient illuminance.

Tikidji-Hamburyan Alexandra A Reinhard Katja K Seitter Hartwig H Hovhannisyan Anahit A Procyk Christopher A CA Allen Annette E AE Schenk Martin M Lucas Robert J RJ Münch Thomas A TA

Nature neuroscience 20141208 1

The collective activity pattern of retinal ganglion cells, the retinal code, underlies higher visual processing. How does the ambient illuminance of the visual scene influence this retinal output? We recorded from isolated mouse and pig retina and from mouse dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus in vivo at up to seven ambient light levels covering the scotopic to photopic regimes. Across each luminance transition, most ganglion cells exhibited qualitative response changes, whereas they maintained st ...[more]

PMID: 25485757

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Project description:PurposeTo compare the effect of variable pupil size on the flicker electroretinogram (ERG) between a stimulus having constant luminance and a stimulus having constant retinal illuminance (constant Troland) that compensates for pupil size.MethodsSubjects (n = 18) were tested with 12 pairs of the stimuli. The stimulus pair consisted of the ISCEV standard constant luminance stimulus (3 cd·s/m2 with a 30 cd/m2 background) and a constant retinal illuminance stimulus (32 Td·s with a 320 Td background) selected to provide the same stimulus and background when the pupil diameter is 3.7 mm. Half the subjects were artificially dilated, and their response was measured before and during the dilation. The natural pupil group was used to assess intra- and inter-subject variability. The artificially dilated group was used to measure the flicker ERG's dependence on pupil size.ResultsWith natural pupils, intra-subject variability was lower with the constant Troland stimulus, while inter-subject variability was similar between stimuli. During pupil dilation, the constant Troland stimulus did not have a dependence on pupil size up to 6.3 mm and had slightly larger amplitudes with longer implicit times for fully dilated pupils. For the constant luminance stimulus, waveform amplitudes varied by 22% per mm change in pupil diameter, or by 48% over the 2.2 mm diameter range measured in dilated pupil size. There was no difference in inter-subject variability between constant Troland natural pupils and the same subjects with a constant luminance stimulus when dilated (i.e., the ISCEV standard condition).ConclusionsThese results suggest that a constant Troland flicker ERG test with natural pupils may be advantageous in clinical testing. Because of its insensitivity to pupil size, constant Troland stimuli should produce smaller reference ranges, which in turn should improve the sensitivity for detection of abnormalities and for monitoring changes. In addition, the test can be administered more efficiently as it does not require artificial dilation.Clinical trial registration numberThis trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02466607).

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Retinal output changes qualitatively with every change in ambient illuminance.

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Retinal output changes qualitatively with every change in ambient illuminance.

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