Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Neuroscience

Accurate maps of visual circuitry

Nature volume 500, pages 154–155 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

Such is the brain's complexity that even small neural circuits contain hundreds of neurons making thousands of connections. Connectivity and optical analyses provide close-up views of two such circuits. See Articles p.168, p.175 & Letter p.212

Understanding the biological machinery from which perception, action and thinking are built is not an easy undertaking. A big difficulty is that neuroscientists must deal with a problem of spatial scale — one in which components range from nanometre-sized synaptic junctions between neurons to centimetre-long connections between brain regions — and study these scales simultaneously. Three papers1,2,3 in this issue attack these problems of scale. Two of them (by Helmstaedter et al.1 and Takemura et al.2) use computational techniques to expand the field of neurons that can be encompassed in a high-resolution view. The third study (by Maisak et al.3) combines genetic and optical methods to record the activity of neurons that until now have been impossible to monitor owing to their small size. All three take as a model the retina, the first image-processing element in the chain that leads to visual perception.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: The mechanism of motion discrimination in the visual system1,2,3.

FABIAN ISENSEE, JULIA KUHL/MAX PLANCK INST. MED. RES./REF. 1

References

  1. Helmstaedter, M. et al. Nature 500, 168–174 (2013).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Takemura, S. et al. Nature 500, 175–181 (2013).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Maisak, M. S. et al. Nature 500, 212–216 (2013).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Masland, R. H. Neuron 76, 266–280 (2012).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Wässle, H., Puller, C., Müller, F. & Haverkamp, S. J. Neurosci. 29, 106–117 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Reichardt, W. in Sensory Communication (ed. Rosenblith, W. A.) 303–317 (MIT Press, 1961).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Barlow, H. B. & Levick, W. R. J. Physiol. (Lond.) 178, 477–504 (1965).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Richard H. Masland is in the Departments of Ophthalmology and Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA.,

    Richard H. Masland

Authors
  1. Richard H. Masland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Richard H. Masland.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Masland, R. Accurate maps of visual circuitry. Nature 500, 154–155 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/500154a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/500154a

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing