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C W Oyster

Publications and source records attributed to C W Oyster.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

Morphologies of rabbit retinal ganglion cells with concentric receptive fields.

Rabbit retinal ganglion cells with concentric receptive fields were intracellularly recorded and stained in the isolated superfused eyecup preparation to relate specific physiological response properties to dendritic morphology. Concentric ganglion cells, as traditionally defined, were those that had On or Off centers with antagonistic surrounds but lacked complex response properties such as direction or orientation selectivity. Concentric cells were classified into different groups by extracellular recordings of their On- or Off-center response sign, excitatory receptive field center size, linearity of spatial summation, and brisk vs. sluggish and transient vs. sustained responses to step changes in light intensity. The cells were then impaled, confirmed in identity during intracellular recording, and iontophoretically injected with horseradish peroxidase for histological analysis. Twenty-three concentric ganglion cells were recovered and morphometrically analyzed. Their physiological response properties were found to be related to a number of underlying two- and three-dimensional attributes of the cell's dendritic branching patterns. The dendrites of all 20 brisk concentric cells and two of the three sluggish cells were found to ramify narrowly in either the proximal or distal half of the inner plexiform layer, corresponding to whether they are On center or Off center, respectively. One of the sluggish concentric cells was found to have a more complex, partially bistratified ramification. Physiologically identified brisk-sustained-linear, brisk-transient-nonlinear, brisk-transient-linear, and at least two classes of sluggish concentric ganglion cells were stained. Each of these physiological classes appears to exhibit a distinct and identifiable dendritic branching pattern.

Action Potentials

Morphologies of rabbit retinal ganglion cells with complex receptive fields.

Ganglion cells that had complex receptive field properties, namely, On-Off and On direction-selective cells, orientation-selective cells, local edge detectors, and uniformity detectors (suppressed by contrast cells) were recorded in an isolated superfused rabbit eyecup preparation. Cells were first classified by their characteristic extracellular responses to manually controlled stimuli similar to those which have been used in previous in vivo studies. Ganglion cells were then impaled, confirmed in identity by intracellular recording, and iontophoretically injected with horseradish peroxidase for staining. Twenty-two ganglion cells, which included members of all the major classes mentioned above, were recovered from the visual streak or near periphery. All recovered cells were drawn in camera lucida from flat-mounted retinas and entered into a computer as two-dimensional stick figures; nearly all were three-dimensionally reconstructed to determine the level and manner of dendritic ramification in the inner plexiform layer (IPL). The location of ganglion cell dendrites in sublaminar regions of the IPL was found to be consistent with the hypothesis of a division of the IPL into excitatory On (proximal) and Off (distal) sublaminae, with some qualifications for particular classes. Each of the complex receptive field ganglion cell classes exhibited a distinctive three-dimensional dendritic arborization pattern uniquely associated with that physiological class.

Action Potentials

Ganglion cell density in albino and pigmented rabbit retinas labeled with a ganglion cell-specific monoclonal antibody.

Retinas from two rabbits, one normally pigmented and one albino, were labeled with monoclonal antibody AB5, which has been shown to be a specific marker for ganglion cells. This method obviates criteria for distinguishing among ganglion cells, displaced amacrine cells, and glia. Labeled cells were counted within small fields at some 2000 regularly spaced points on each retina. These counts were transformed to maps of ganglion cell density. In general, the density map for the pigmented retina was similar to those obtained by earlier studies with non-specific stains, thereby confirming the basic validity of most previous studies and demonstrating the applicability of AB5 labeling to work of this type. The ganglion cell density map of the albino retina was abnormal, showing a clear deficit of ganglion cells in the nasal portion of the visual streak. This result not only indicates that the albino anomaly has retinal effects, but also suggests a major impact on ganglion cells whose projections (in normal animals) are contralateral.

Albinism

Morphology and distribution of tyrosine hydroxylase-like immunoreactive neurons in the cat retina.

In cat retina, antisera directed against tyrosine hydroxylase (tyrosine 3-monooxygenase; EC 1.14.16.2) labeled three morphologically distinct classes of neurons; amacrine cells, displaced amacrine cells, and interplexiform cells. These three cell populations differed not only in their morphologies but also in their numbers, densities, and retinal distributions. Insofar as tyrosine hydroxylase-like immunoreactivity is associated with dopaminergic neurons, these observations suggest that the dopamine system in cat retina is morphologically heterogeneous and that the cat retina contains functional subdivisions based on the different distributions of specific cell populations.

Animals

Retinogeniculate projections in the rabbit: an autoradiographic study.

As shown by autoradiographic techniques, the pattern of retinogeniculate projections in the pigmented rabbit is generally similar to that described in previous studies. Each retina projects bilaterally to the alpha segment of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGd) and to the external segment of the ventral lateral geniculate nucleus (LGv). The beta segment of the LGd and internal layer of the LGv receive contralateral inputs only. The alpha segment of the LGd contains an irregularly shaped region which receives overlapping bilateral projections. Within this region the ipsilateral input is continuous and predominant. This pattern of ipsilateral projection can account for both the laminar arrangement perpendicular to the lines of projection and the "hidden lamination" which have been described previously for the rabbit LGd. A separate bilateral projection is identified for a group of cells lying between the LGd and LGv rostrally. Caudally this intergeniculate leaflet extends medial and ventral to the LGv and appears to merge with the zona incerta.

Animals

Responses of rabbit superior colliculus neurons to repeated visual stimuli.

It has been shown that cells in the superficial layers of the superior colliculus exhibit response decrements when a visual stimulus is repeated. These response decrements have some of the properties associated with habituation, in particular, 1) spontaneous recovery and 2) habituation rate dependent on stimulus frequency. These observations have been made in two classes of neurons; direction-selective cells and so-called modified concentric cells. All of these neurons had small receptive fields and well-defined response properties. Some neurons in both the direction-selective and modified concentric groups do not show habituation. On the basis of area-threshold curves and other observations, it is suggested that those neurons which habituate possess strong inhibitory inputs which are weak or lacking in thenonhabituating neurons. This generalization leads to a hypothesis that inhibition in the superior colliculus has a long decay time and that a response to a given stimulus is affected by inhibition activated by preceding stimuli.

Animals