Retinal Waves Are Governed by Collective Network Properties
The Journal of Neuroscience, May 1, 1999, 19(9):3580–3593 Retinal Waves Are Governed by Collective Network Properties Daniel A. Butts,1 Marla B. Feller,2,3 Carla J. Shatz,2 Daniel S. Rokhsar1 1Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-7300, 2Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-3200, and National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stoke, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-4156 Propagating neural activity in the developing mammalian retina also present evidence that wave properties are locally deter- is required for the normal patterning of retinothalamic connec- mined by a single variable, the fraction of recruitable (i.e., tions. This activity exhibits a complex spatiotemporal pattern of nonrefractory) cells within the dendritic field of a retinal neuron. initiation, propagation, and termination. Here, we discuss the From this perspective, a given local area’s ability to support behavior of a model of the developing retina using a combina- waves with a wide range of propagation velocities—as ob- tion of simulation and analytic calculation. Our model produces served in experiment—reflects the variability in the local state of spatially and temporally restricted waves without requiring in- excitability of that area. This prediction is supported by whole- hibition, consistent with the early depolarizing action of neuro- cell voltage-clamp recordings, which measure significant wave- transmitters in the retina. We find that highly correlated, tem- to-wave variability in the amount of synaptic input a cell re- porally regular, and spatially restricted activity occurs over a ceives when it participates in a wave.
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