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

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2024

Publication Title

IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society

Abstract

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.

Medical Subject Headings

Mice; Animals; Action Potentials; Retina; Retinal Ganglion Cells; Microelectrodes; Electric Stimulation; Photic Stimulation

PubMed ID

38294929

Volume

32

First Page

850

Last Page

864

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