Event Details:
Stanford Neurosciences Institute Seminar Series Presents
Assembling feature-detecting circuits in the retina
Joshua Sanes, Ph.D
Paul J. Finnegan Family Director, Center for Brain Science, Harvard UniversityJeff C. Tarr Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Host: Kang Shen
Abstract
The retina is emerging as a leading model system for elucidating mechanisms that govern neural circuit assembly and function. Visual information is passed from retinal photoreceptors to interneurons to retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and then on to the rest of the brain. Each of >30 RGC types responds to specific visual features, and the features to which each type responds depend on which of the >70 types of interneurons synapse on it. Our goal is to gain genetic access to the various interneurons and RGCs and ask how they make their synaptic choices. As an example, I will focus on RGCs that respond selectively to motion in a single direction. I will describe the circuitry that underlies this response, and then summarize genetic, morphological and physiological studies that have led to identification of some molecules and mechanisms that underlie assembly of the direction-selective circuit.