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Updated functional segregation of retinal ganglion cell projections in the tectum of a cyprinid fish—further elaboration based on microelectrode recordings

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Abstract

Single-unit responses of retinal ganglion cells (GCs) were recorded extracellularly from their axonal terminals in the tectum opticum (TO) of the intact fish (goldfish, carp). The depths of retinal units consecutively recorded along the track of the microelectrode were measured. At the depth of around 50 μm, the responses of six types of direction-selective (DS) GCs were regularly recorded. Responses of two types of orientation-selective (OS) GCs and detectors of white and black spots occurred approximately 50 μm deeper. Responses of GCs with dark- and light-sustained activity were recorded deeper than all others, at about 200 μm. The receptive fields of consecutively recorded units overlap, so they analyze the same fragment of the visual scene, focused by eye optic on the photoreceptor raster. The responses of pairs of DS GCs (ON and OFF units that preferred same direction of stimulus movement) and OS GCs (detectors of vertical and horizontal lines) were often simultaneously recorded at one position of the microelectrode. (The paired recordings of certain units amounted about fourth part of all recordings.) This suggests that their axonal arborizations are located close to each other in the tectal retinorecipient layer. Electrophysiological method, thus, allows to indirectly clarify and make precise the morphology of the retino-tectal connections and to establish a morpho-physiological correspondence.

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Acknowledgments

Authors are grateful to Luka Gačić who provided improvements to our English grammar.

Funding

This study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant no. 16-04-00029).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Information Transmission Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Kharkevich Institute), Moscow, Russia, 127051

    Alexey T. Aliper, Alisa A. Zaichikova, Ilija Damjanović, Paul V. Maximov, Anna A. Kasparson & Elena M. Maximova

  2. Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, 119991

    Alisa A. Zaichikova

  3. Institute for Multidisciplinary Research,, University of Belgrade, P.O. Box 33, Belgrade, 11000, Serbia

    Zoran Gačić

  4. Belgrade, Serbia

    Zoran Gačić

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  1. Alexey T. Aliper
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  2. Alisa A. Zaichikova
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  3. Ilija Damjanović
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  4. Paul V. Maximov
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  7. Elena M. Maximova
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Correspondence to Zoran Gačić.

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The experimental procedures were approved by the local ethical committee of the Institute for Information Transmission Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Protocol No. 1 of April 24 2018).

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Aliper, A.T., Zaichikova, A.A., Damjanović, I. et al. Updated functional segregation of retinal ganglion cell projections in the tectum of a cyprinid fish—further elaboration based on microelectrode recordings. Fish Physiol Biochem 45, 773–792 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10695-018-0603-0

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