The rod bipolar cell pathway contributes to surround responses in OFF retinal ganglion cells.

Authors

Giulia Spampinato, Francesco Trapani, Victor Calbiague-Garcia, Thomas Buffet, Elaine Orendorff, B Semihcan Sermet, Guilhem Glaziou, Deniz Dalkara, Emiliano Ronzitti, Eirini Papagiakoumou, Valentina Emiliani, Olivier Marre

Published in

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Volume 123. Issue 35. Pages e2532792123. Epub Aug 24, 2026.

Abstract

Sensory neurons can be influenced by stimuli beyond their receptive field center, yet the mechanisms underlying this surround modulation remain poorly understood. In the retina, many OFF ganglion cells exhibit responses to ON stimulation outside their receptive field center. However, disentangling the pathways and cell types contributing to these responses has been challenging with traditional experimental approaches. Here, we combined optogenetics, two-photon holographic stimulation, and multielectrode array recordings to identify the intermediate retinal cell types involved in this circuit. We found that the pathway consisting of rod bipolar cells and AII amacrine cells-one of the primary relays of rod-driven signals under low-light conditions-plays a key role in mediating this surround modulation. Specifically, crossover inhibition exploits the same amacrine cells responsible for surround suppression to disinhibit distant ganglion cells. This suggests that the retina repurposes existing circuits for surround modulation, optimizing resources through multifunctional inhibitory pathways.

PMID:
42636374
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 25 Aug 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.