Abstract
To provide a compact and efficient input to the brain, sensory systems separate the incoming information into parallel feature channels. In the visual system, parallel processing starts in the retina. Here, the image is decomposed into multiple retinal output channels, each selective for a specific set of visual features like motion, contrast, or edges. In this article, we will summarize recent findings on the functional organization of the retinal output, the neural mechanisms underlying its diversity, and how single visual features, like color, are extracted by the retinal network. Unraveling how the retina – as the first stage of the visual system – filters the visual input is an important step toward understanding how visual information processing guides behavior.
Zusammenfassung
Sensorische Systeme verteilen eingehende Informationen auf parallele Kanäle. Im visuellen System beginnt dies bereits in der Netzhaut. Dort wird die Bildinformation auf verschiedene Ausgangskanäle verteilt, die jeweils einen bestimmten Satz visueller Merkmale wie Bewegung, Kontrast oder Kanten repräsentieren. In diesem Artikel werden wir die neuesten Erkenntnisse über die funktionelle Organisation des retinalen Ausgangssignals und die neuronalen Mechanismen, die seiner Vielfalt zugrunde liegen, zusammenfassen und erklären wie einzelne visuelle Merkmale, wie Farbe, durch das neuronale Netzwerk der Netzhaut extrahiert werden. Ein tiefes Verständnis davon, wie die Netzhaut – als erste Stufe des visuellen Systems – den visuellen Input filtert, ist ein wichtiger Schritt, um zu verstehen, wie die visuelle Informationsverarbeitung das Verhalten steuert.
Über die Autoren
Klaudia P. Szatko is currently a Ph.D. researcher of Dr. Katrin Franke in the Neural Circuits of Vision lab at Tübingen University. She is a member of the International Max Planck Research School for Neural and Behavioral Sciences at the Graduate Training Center, Tübingen. Klaudia holds a B.Sc. degree in Biology and an M.Sc. degree in Neurobiology. She performed her M.Sc. thesis work in the lab of Prof. Marian H. Lewandowski at Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
Katrin Franke received her Ph.D. at the IMPRS for Neural and Behavioral Sciences at the Graduate Training Center Tübingen. Since then, she has been junior group leader at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience and the Institute for Ophthalmic Research at Tübingen University. She is also a research fellow in the Tolias lab at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, US. Her work focuses on how neural circuits across the early visual system of mice process visual information towards driving behavior.
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Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
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Research funding: None declared.
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Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.
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