Fast and Slow Contrast Adaptation in Retinal Circuitry
Open accessAbstract
The visual system adapts to the magnitude of intensity fluctuations, and this process begins in the retina. Following the switch from a low-contrast environment to one of high contrast, ganglion cell sensitivity declines in two distinct phases: a fast change occurs in <0.1 s, and a slow decrease over approximately 10 s. To examine where these modulations arise, we recorded intracellularly from every major cell type in the salamander retina. Certain bipolar and amacrine cells, and all ganglion cells, adapted to contrast. Generally, these neurons showed both fast and slow adaptation. Fast effects of a contrast increase included accelerated kinetics, decreased sensitivity, and a depolarization of the baseline membrane potential. Slow adaptation did not affect kinetics, but produced a gradual hyperpolarization. This hyperpolarization can account for slow adaptation in the spiking output of ganglion cells.
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Neurons in many cortical and subcortical brain areas exhibit robust gain modulation that may contribute to multiple cognitive functions, including attention, learning, sensory processing and multimodal integration.
“Neurons in many cortical and subcortical brain areas exhibit robust gain modulation that may contribute to multiple cognitive functions, including attention, learning, sensory processing and multimodal integration1–3,7,8,13–17.”
From Mechanisms underlying gain modulation in the cortex (2020) · cites this paper as [17]
Adaptation enables high sensitivity to small changes in stimulus features over a large range of intensities and is found across sensory systems.
“Adaptation enables high sensitivity to small changes in stimulus features over a large range of intensities, and is found across sensory systems5,17,26,105,210–216.”
From Mechanisms underlying gain modulation in the cortex (2020) · cites this paper as [17]
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“High contrast stimuli cause ganglion cells to respond with a time course that is faster, more biphasic, and less sensitive than during low contrast.(19,26,27) These properties can be assessed with an LN model consisting of a linear temporal filter and static nonlinearity fit at different contrasts.”
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- Authors
- Baccus, S. A., & Meister, M.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Baccus, Stephen A.
- Venue
- Neuron
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2002-12
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 909-919
- ISSN
- 0896-6273 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2159198041
- Cited by
- 515
- References
- 39
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- FWCI
- 6.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/legal/tdmrep-license (tdm)
- www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/ (vor, 3881 d)
- doi.org/10.15223/policy-017 (stm-asf)
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- doi.org/10.15223/policy-004 (stm-asf)
- Locations
- Neuron (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Eye Institute
- Israel National Road Safety Authority
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Retinal Development and Disorders
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Keywords
- contrast adaptation, retinal circuitry, ganglion cells, bipolar cells, amacrine cells, salamander retina, rapid adaptation, slow adaptation, membrane potential, hyperpolarization, neuronal sensitivity, intracellular recording
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Ocular, Animals, Electrophysiology, Membrane Potentials, Models, Biological, Neurons, Photic Stimulation, Rabbits, Retina, Time Factors, Caudata, Contrast Sensitivity
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