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Dendritic Relationships between Cholinergic Amacrine Cells and Direction-Selective Retinal Ganglion Cells

  • Conference paper
Neurobiology of the Inner Retina

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASIH,volume 31))

Abstract

Although the apparent simplicity of direction selectivity has fascinated retinal physiologists since the process was first characterized by Barlow & Levick (1965), its synaptic mechanism still eludes us. There is substantial cholinergic input to direction-selective (DS) retinal ganglion cells (Masland & Ames 1976, Ariel & Daw 1982) but the functions of cholinergic amacrine cells in complex visual processing are poorly understood. Direction selectivity is believed to arise from non-linear interactions between cholinergic and GABAergic inputs, either in the ganglion cell itself or at a presynaptic level. The recent finding that the cholinergic amacrines also contain γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA; Vaney & Young 1988) and its synthetic enzyme (GAD; Kosaka et al 1988, Brecha et al 1988), is compatible with a single type of interneuron mediating both the excitation and inhibition to DS ganglion cells (Dowling 1970).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Vision Research Institute of Australia, Carlton, Vic., 3053, Australia

    David I. Vaney (NH&MRC Research Fellow), Shaun P. Collin & Heather M. Young

  2. Vision Touch & Hearing Research Centre, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Qld, 4067, Australia

    David I. Vaney (NH&MRC Research Fellow), Shaun P. Collin & Heather M. Young

Authors
  1. David I. Vaney
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  2. Shaun P. Collin
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  3. Heather M. Young
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurobiology, University of Oldenburg, P.O. Box 2503, 2900, Oldenburg, Germany

    Reto Weiler

  2. Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Oxford University, Walton Street, OX2 6AW, Oxford, UK

    Neville N. Osborne

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© 1989 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Vaney, D.I., Collin, S.P., Young, H.M. (1989). Dendritic Relationships between Cholinergic Amacrine Cells and Direction-Selective Retinal Ganglion Cells. In: Weiler, R., Osborne, N.N. (eds) Neurobiology of the Inner Retina. NATO ASI Series, vol 31. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74149-4_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74149-4_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-74151-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-74149-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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