Journal ArticleDOI
Wiring specificity in the direction-selectivity circuit of the retina
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TLDR
It is shown, using serial block-face electron microscopy and two-photon calcium imaging, that the dendrites of mouse starburst amacrine cells make highly specific synapses with direction-selective ganglion cells depending on the ganglION cell’s preferred direction.Abstract:
The proper connectivity between neurons is essential for the implementation of the algorithms used in neural computations, such as the detection of directed motion by the retina. The analysis of neuronal connectivity is possible with electron microscopy, but technological limitations have impeded the acquisition of high-resolution data on a large enough scale. Here we show, using serial block-face electron microscopy and two-photon calcium imaging, that the dendrites of mouse starburst amacrine cells make highly specific synapses with direction-selective ganglion cells depending on the ganglion cell's preferred direction. Our findings indicate that a structural (wiring) asymmetry contributes to the computation of direction selectivity. The nature of this asymmetry supports some models of direction selectivity and rules out others. It also puts constraints on the developmental mechanisms behind the formation of synaptic connections. Our study demonstrates how otherwise intractable neurobiological questions can be addressed by combining functional imaging with the analysis of neuronal connectivity using large-scale electron microscopy.read more
Citations
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From Functional Architecture to Functional Connectomics
TL;DR: Orientation columns are iconic examples of topographic specificity, whereby axons within a column connect with cells of a single orientation preference, which together with cell-type specificity constitute the major determinants of nonrandom cortical connectivity.
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Intravital Correlative Microscopy: Imaging Life at the Nanoscale.
TL;DR: Current methods and approaches that will make intravital CLEM a routine, quantitative method for high-resolution cell biology in vivo are outlined and described.
Journal ArticleDOI
Organization and development of direction-selective circuits in the retina
Wei Wei,Marla B. Feller +1 more
TL;DR: Recent advances in genetic, imaging and optogenetic techniques are described that have improved the understanding of the synaptic organization and development underlying retinal direction selectivity.
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Retinal connectomics: towards complete, accurate networks.
Robert E. Marc,Bryan W. Jones,Carl B. Watt,James R. Anderson,Crystal Sigulinsky,Scott Lauritzen +5 more
TL;DR: The first findings from connectomics strongly validate the idea that the topologies of complete retinal networks are far more complex than the simple schematics that emerged from classical anatomy and provide new contexts for assessing intercellular communication.
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Mapping the Connectome: Multi-Level Analysis of Brain Connectivity
TL;DR: There is increasing awareness that new neuroinformatics tools and strategies are needed to achieve the goal of compiling the brain’s connectome, and that any such effort will require systematic, large-scale approaches.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
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Journal ArticleDOI
The structure of the nervous system of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans
TL;DR: The structure and connectivity of the nervous system of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been deduced from reconstructions of electron micrographs of serial sections as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI
The mechanism of directionally selective units in rabbit's retina.
Horace Barlow,W. R. Levick +1 more
TL;DR: Experiments are described which show, first, that directional selectivity is not due to optical aberrations of some kind and, secondly, that it is not a simple matter of the latency of response varying systematically across the receptive field.
Journal ArticleDOI
Serial block−face scanning electron microscopy to reconstruct three−dimensional tissue nanostructure
Winfried Denk,Heinz Horstmann +1 more
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that datasets meeting these requirements can be obtained by automated block-face imaging combined with serial sectioning inside the chamber of a scanning electron microscope, opening the possibility of automatically obtaining the electron-microscope-level 3D datasets needed to completely reconstruct the connectivity of neuronal circuits.
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