a dendrite-autonomous mechanism for direction selectivity in retinal starburst amacrine cells在视网膜的亮光dendrite-autonomous机制方向选择性无长突细胞.pdfVIP

PLoS BIOLOGY A Dendrite-Autonomous Mechanism for Direction Selectivity in Retinal Starburst Amacrine Cells 1 1* 2 1 Susanne E. Hausselt , Thomas Euler , Peter B. Detwiler , Winfried Denk 1 Department of Biomedical Optics, Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, Germany, 2 Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America Detection of image motion direction begins in the retina, with starburst amacrine cells (SACs) playing a major role. SACs generate larger dendritic Ca2þ signals when motion is from their somata towards their dendritic tips than for motion in the opposite direction. To study the mechanisms underlying the computation of direction selectivity (DS) in SAC dendrites, electrical responses to expanding and contracting circular wave visual stimuli were measured via somatic whole-cell recordings and quantified using Fourier analysis. Fundamental and, especially, harmonic frequency components were larger for expanding stimuli. This DS persists in the presence of GABA and glycine receptor antagonists, suggesting that inhibitory network interactions are not essential. The presence of harmonics indicates nonlinearity, which, as the relationship between harmonic amplitudes and holding potential indicates, is likely due to the activation of voltage-gated channels. [Ca2þ] changes in SAC dendrites evoked by voltage steps and monitored by two-photon microscopy suggest that the distal dendrite is tonically depolarized relative to the soma, due in part to resting currents mediated by tonic glutamatergic synaptic input, and that high-voltage–activated Ca2þ channels are active at rest. Supported by compartmental modeling, we conclude that dendritic DS in SACs can be computed by the den