Illuminating synapses and circuitry in the retina

Autor: Nicholas W. Oesch, Jeffrey S. Diamond, W. Wade Kothmann
Rok vydání: 2010
Předmět:
Zdroj: Current opinion in neurobiology. 21(2)
ISSN: 1873-6882
Popis: In the central nervous system, space is at a premium. This is especially true in the retina, where synapses, cells, and circuitry have evolved to maximize signal-processing capacity within a thin, optically transparent tissue. For example, at some retinal synapses, single presynaptic active zones contact multiple postsynaptic targets; some individual neurons perform completely different tasks depending on visual conditions, while others execute hundreds of circuit computations in parallel; and the retinal network adapts, at various levels, to the ever-changing visual world. Each of these features reflects efficient use of limited cellular resources to optimally encode visual information.
Databáze: OpenAIRE