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A non-canonical pathway for mammalian blue-green color vision

Nature Neuroscience volume 15, pages 952–953 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

The dynamic range of visual coding is extended by having separate ganglion cell types that respond to light increments and decrements. Although the primordial color vision system in mammals contains a well-characterized ganglion cell that responds to blue light increments (a blue On center cell), less is known about ganglion cells that respond to blue light decrements (blue Off center cells). We identified a regular mosaic of blue Off center ganglion cells in the ground squirrel. Contrary to the standard scheme, blue Off responses came from a blue On bipolar and inverting amacrine cell.

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Figure 1: Ground squirrel retina contains an S-Off/M-On ganglion cell type.
Figure 2: Pharmacological dissection of S-Off/M-On ganglion cell responses.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A.M. Litke for technical development and scientific discussions, W. Dabrowski, K. Mathieson, P. Hottowy and S. Kachiguine for technical development, M. Krause and J. Roebber for technical assistance with the experiments, and G.D. Field and B. Szmajda for providing comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by a US National Institutes of Health grant (R01EY018204) to S.H.D. and a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface to A.S.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, USA

    Alexander Sher

  2. Departments of Ophthalmology and Physiology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Steven H DeVries

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  1. Alexander Sher
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  2. Steven H DeVries
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The authors contributed equally to this work.

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Correspondence to Alexander Sher or Steven H DeVries.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Sher, A., DeVries, S. A non-canonical pathway for mammalian blue-green color vision. Nat Neurosci 15, 952–953 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3127

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