Washington University School of Medicine Digital Commons@Becker Open Access Publications 2012 Amacrine cells: Seeing the forest and the trees Jeffrey S. Diamond National Institute of Health Peter D. Lukasiewicz Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/open_access_pubs Recommended Citation Diamond, Jeffrey S. and Lukasiewicz, Peter D., ,"Amacrine cells: Seeing the forest and the trees." Visual Neuroscience.29,1. 1-2. (2012). https://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/open_access_pubs/3297 This Open Access Publication is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons@Becker. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Becker. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Visual Neuroscience (2012), 29,1–2. Copyright Ó Cambridge University Press, 2012 0952-5238/12 $25.00 doi:10.1017/S0952523812000016 INTRODUCTION Amacrine cells: Seeing the forest and the trees You only need sit still long enough in some attractive spot in been shown to mediate “crossover inhibition” between the ON the woods that all its inhabitants may exhibit themselves to pathway and OFF ganglion cells. Demb and Singer describe recent you by turns. work on how the bidirectional gap junctions between AII amacrine – Henry David Thoreau, Walden cells and ON cone bipolar cells enable AII amacrine cells to play distinct roles in night and day vision. The amacrine cell class comprises as many distinct cell subtypes as Thanks to amacrine cells, bipolar cells are not mere intermediaries the rest of the retina combined. Though bewildering in their number that passively relay the conversation between photoreceptors and and diversity, amacrine cells nonetheless often exhibit common mor- ganglion cells.