Mapping a complete neural population in the retina

Olivier Marre, Dario Amodei, Nikhil Deshmukh, Kolia Sadeghi, Frederick Soo, Timothy E. Holy, Michael J. Berry

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

121 Scopus citations

Abstract

Recording simultaneously from essentially all of the relevant neurons in a local circuit is crucial to understand how they collectively represent information. Here we show that the combination of a large, dense multielectrode array and a novel, mostly automated spikesorting algorithm allowed us to record simultaneously from a highly overlapping population of >200 ganglion cells in the salamander retina. By combining these methods with labeling and imaging, we showed that up to 95% of the ganglion cells over the area of the array were recorded. By measuring the coverage of visual space by the receptive fields of the recorded cells, we concluded that our technique captured a neural population that forms an essentially complete representation of a region of visual space. This completeness allowed us to determine the spatial layout of different cell types as well as identify a novel group of ganglion cells that responded reliably to a set of naturalistic and artificial stimuli but had no measurable receptive field. Thus, our method allows unprecedented access to the complete neural representation of visual information, a crucial step for the understanding of population coding in sensory systems.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)14859-14873
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Neuroscience
Volume32
Issue number43
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 24 2012

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Neuroscience

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Mapping a complete neural population in the retina'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this