MBC Graduate Training, Fred Rieke, University of Washington, "Parallel processing of rod and cone signals in retinal circuits"

Date
Mon April 10th 2017, 5:10 - 6:30pm
Event Sponsor
Department of Psychology
Location
Sloan Hall Math Building 380, Room 380-C

Parallel processing of rod and cone signals in retinal circuits

Vision relies on simultaneous input from rod and cone photoreceptors at light levels ranging from moonlight to dawn. These lighting conditions are challenging because the rod and cone signals differ substantially: rod responses are relatively slow and nearing saturation, while cone responses are faster and weak. These disparate signals converge within retinal circuits to modulate responses of a common set of retinal ganglion cells. Similar challenges of processing and integrating dissimilar inputs recur in many neural circuits. I will describe work aimed at understanding how rod and cone signals are routed through diverse retinal circuits and how they are combined to coherently control retinal outputs.