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The GABAA receptor mediated inhibitory pathway increases the correlated activities in retinal ganglion cells

LIU Xue, ZHANG Ying-Ying, GONG Hai-Qing, LIANG Pei-Ji^*

Laboratory of Neural Information Processing, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200240, China

Abstract

In the present study, the correlated activities of adjacent ganglion cells of transient subtype in response to full-field white light stimulation were investigated in the chicken retina. Pharmacological studies and cross-correlation analysis demonstrated that application of the GABAA receptor antagonist bicuculline (BIC) significantly down-regulated the correlation strength while increasing the firing activities. Meanwhile, application of the GABAA receptor agonist muscimol (MUS) potentiated the correlated activities while decreasing the firing rates. However, application of the GABAC receptor antagonist (1,2,5,6-Tetrahydropyridin-4-yl)methylphosphinic acid (TPMPA) did not have a consistent influence on either the firing rates or the correlation strength. These results suggest that in the chicken retina, correlated activities among neighborhood transient ganglion cells can be increased while firing activities are reduced with the activation of GABAA receptors. The GABAA-receptor-mediated inhibitory pathway may be critical for improving the efficiency of visual information transmission.

Key words: vision; inhibition; GABAA receptor; correlation study

Received: 2008-12-09　　Accepted: 2009-01-05

Corresponding author: 梁培基　　E-mail: pjliang@sjtu.edu.cn

Citing This Article：

LIU Xue, ZHANG Ying-Ying, GONG Hai-Qing, LIANG Pei-Ji. The GABAA receptor mediated inhibitory pathway increases the correlated activities in retinal ganglion cells. Acta Physiol Sin 2009; 61 (2): 99-107 (in Chinese with English abstract).