Deciphering a neural code for vision

Deciphering the information that eyes, ears, and other sensory organs transmit to the brain is important for understanding the neural basis of behavior. Recordings from single sensory nerve cells have yielded useful insights, but single neurons generally do not mediate behavior; networks of neurons do. Monitoring the activity of all cells in a neural network of a behaving animal, however, is not yet possible. Taking an alternative approach, we used a realistic cell-based model to compute the ensemble of neural activity generated by one sensory organ, the lateral eye of the horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus. We studied how the neural network of this eye encodes natural scenes by presenting to the model movies recorded with a video camera mounted above the eye of an animal that was exploring its underwater habitat. Model predictions were confirmed by simultaneously recording responses from single optic nerve fibers of the same animal. We report here that the eye transmits to the brain robust “neural images” of objects having the size, contrast, and motion of potential mates. The neural code for such objects is not found in ambiguous messages of individual optic nerve fibers but rather in patterns of coherent activity that extend over small ensembles of nerve fibers and are bound together by stimulus motion. Integrative properties of neurons in the first synaptic layer of the brain appear well suited to detecting the patterns of coherent activity. Neural coding by this relatively simple eye helps explain how horseshoe crabs find mates and may lead to a better understanding of how more complex sensory organs process information.

Vitamin B2-based blue-light photoreceptors in the retinohypothalamic tract as the photoactive pigments for setting the circadian clock in mammals

In mammals the retina contains photoactive molecules responsible for both vision and circadian photoresponse systems. Opsins, which are located in rods and cones, are the pigments for vision but it is not known whether they play a role in circadian regulation. A subset of retinal ganglion cells with direct projections to the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) are at the origin of the retinohypothalamic tract that transmits the light signal to the master circadian clock in the SCN. However, the ganglion cells are not known to contain rhodopsin or other opsins that may function as photoreceptors. We have found that the two blue-light photoreceptors, cryptochromes 1 and 2 (CRY1 and CRY2), recently discovered in mammals are specifically expressed in the ganglion cell and inner nuclear layers of the mouse retina. In addition, CRY1 is expressed at high level in the SCN and oscillates in this tissue in a circadian manner. These data, in conjunction with the established role of CRY2 in photoperiodism in plants, lead us to propose that mammals have a vitamin A-based photopigment (opsin) for vision and a vitamin B2-based pigment (cryptochrome) for entrainment of the circadian clock.

Temporal events in cyclopean vision.

The majority of neurons in the primary visual cortex of primates can be activated by stimulation of either eye; moreover, the monocular receptive fields of such neurons are located in about the same region of visual space. These well-known facts imply that binocular convergence in visual cortex can explain our cyclopean view of the world. To test the adequacy of this assumption, we examined how human subjects integrate binocular events in time. Light flashes presented synchronously to both eyes were compared to flashes presented alternately (asynchronously) to one eye and then the other. Subjects perceived very-low-frequency (2 Hz) asynchronous trains as equivalent to synchronous trains flashed at twice the frequency (the prediction based on binocular convergence). However, at higher frequencies of presentation (4-32 Hz), subjects perceived asynchronous and synchronous trains to be increasingly similar. Indeed, at the flicker-fusion frequency (approximately 50 Hz), the apparent difference between the two conditions was only 2%. We suggest that the explanation of these anomalous findings is that we parse visual input into sequential episodes.

The biology of vision of Drosophila.

Phototransduction systems in vertebrates and invertebrates share a great deal of similarity in overall strategy but differ significantly in the underlying molecular machinery. Both are rhodopsin-based G protein-coupled signaling cascades displaying exquisite sensitivity and broad dynamic range. However, light activation of vertebrate photoreceptors leads to activation of a cGMP-phosphodiesterase effector and the generation of a hyperpolarizing response. In contrast, activation of invertebrate photoreceptors, like Drosophila, leads to stimulation of phospholipase C and the generation of a depolarizing receptor potential. The comparative study of these two systems of phototransduction offers the opportunity to understand how similar biological problems may be solved by different molecular mechanisms of signal transduction. The study of this process in Drosophila, a system ideally suited to genetic and molecular manipulation, allows us to dissect the function and regulation of such a complex signaling cascade in its normal cellular environment. In this manuscript I review some of our recent findings and the strategies used to dissect this process.