Dendro-dendritic cholinergic excitation controls dendritic spike initiation in retinal ganglion cells.

ABSTRACT: The retina processes visual images to compute features such as the direction of image motion. Starburst amacrine cells (SACs), axonless feed-forward interneurons, are essential components of the retinal direction-selective circuitry. Recent work has highlighted that SAC-mediated dendro-dendritic inhibition controls the action potential output of direction-selective ganglion cells (DSGCs) by vetoing dendritic spike initiation. However, SACs co-release GABA and the excitatory neurotransmitter acetylcholine at dendritic sites. Here we use direct dendritic recordings to show that preferred direction light stimuli evoke SAC-mediated acetylcholine release, which powerfully controls the stimulus sensitivity, receptive field size and action potential output of ON-DSGCs by acting as an excitatory d

SUBMITTER: Brombas A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5477517 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature