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Gap junction permeability modulated by dopamine exerts effects on spatial and temporal correlation of retinal ganglion cells’ firing activities

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Abstract

Synchronized activities among retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) via gap junctions can be increased by exogenous dopamine (DA). During DA application, single neurons’ firing activities become more synchronized with its adjacent neighbors. One intriguing question is how the enhanced spatial synchronization alters the temporal firing structure of single neurons. In the present study, firing activities of bullfrog’s dimming detectors in response to binary pseudo-random checker-board flickering were recorded via a multi-channel recording system. DA was applied in the retina to modulate synchronized activities between RGCs, and the effect of DA on firing activities of single neurons was examined. It was found that, during application of DA, synchronized activities between single neuron and its neighboring neurons was enhanced. At the meantime, the temporal structures of single neuron spike train changed significantly, and the temporal correlation in single neuron’s response decreased. The pharmacological study results indicated that the activation of D1 receptor might have effects on gap junction permeability between RGCs. Our results suggested that the dopaminergic pathway participated in the modulation of spatial and temporal correlation of RGCs’ firing activities, and may exert critical effects on visual information processing in the retina.

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Abbreviations

CCF:

Cross-correlation function

DA:

Dopamine

ISI:

Inter-spike-interval

MEA:

Micro-electrode array

RGC:

Retinal ganglion cell

SCH:

SCH-23390

SU:

Sulpiride

TCI:

Temporal correlation index

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the grants from the State Key Basic Research and Development Plan (No.2005CB724301) and National Foundations of Natural Science of China (No.61075108, No.60775034).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong-Chuan Road, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Jing-Yi Bu, Hao Li, Hai-Qing Gong, Pei-Ji Liang & Pu-Ming Zhang

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  1. Jing-Yi Bu
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  2. Hao Li
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Correspondence to Pu-Ming Zhang.

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Bu, JY., Li, H., Gong, HQ. et al. Gap junction permeability modulated by dopamine exerts effects on spatial and temporal correlation of retinal ganglion cells’ firing activities. J Comput Neurosci 36, 67–79 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10827-013-0469-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10827-013-0469-1

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