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Artificial Vision 2013

The International Symposium on Visual Prosthetics

08.11. - 09.11.2013, Aachen

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The importance to retinal prostheses of functional diversity across the ganglion cell population

Meeting Abstract

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  • Daniel L. Rathbun - Institute for Ophthalmic Research, Center for Integrative Neuroscience, Tuebingen, Germany
  • A. Jalligampala - Institute for Ophthalmic Research, Center for Integrative Neuroscience, Tuebingen, Germany; Graduate Training Centre of Neuroscience, Tuebingen, Germany
  • E. Zrenner - Institute for Ophthalmic Research, Center for Integrative Neuroscience, Tuebingen, Germany

Artificial Vision 2013. Aachen, 08.-09.11.2013. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2014. Doc13artvis06

doi: 10.3205/13artvis06, urn:nbn:de:0183-13artvis061

Published: February 13, 2014

© 2014 Rathbun et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Objective: To examine the diversity of ganglion cell responses to electrical stimulation and the influence this diversity may have on standardized stimuli that are derived from simple population averages.

Materials & Methods: Mouse RGC spike trains were recorded with a multi-electrode array from the isolated retina during epiretinal stimulation with square wave, monophasic pulses of varying voltage and duration.

Results: Only about half of RGCs respond to electrical stimulation. Contrary to common assumptions, many RGCs do not respond to increasing electrical stimulus with a sigmoidal function. The diversity of response patterns appears to reflect the diversity of network inputs and physiological properties across the RGC population.

Discussion: Standardized stimuli currently being used in the field of retinal prostheses should be reevaluated with an awareness of the large range of RGC classes. Future in vitro studies should take care to account for the true diversity of RGC classes rather than assuming that all RGCs are equivalent.

Acknowledgements: Kerstan Stiftung; Neuro-Ophthalmologische Gesellschaft; Pro-Retina; BMBF, FKZ: 01GQ1002; DFG, EXC307