Wednesday, June 1, 2005

12 noon

Redwood Neuroscience Institute

 

Title:  “Diverse forms of reciprocal antagonistic interaction in the retina create a dozen different retinal movies, transmitted in parallel to higher visual centers.”

 

Frank Werblin

Department of Neurobiology

University of California at Berkeley

 

Abstract:

Reciprocal antagonistic interactions serve as difference amplifiers that subserve edge enhancement, directional selectivity, feature abstraction, contrast enhancement and many other visual functions. These interactions are expressed in a common motif, expressed in diverse synaptic structures and neural circuits. The final expression of these interactions leads to a family of a dozen different representations (retinal movies) of the visual world, each expressed in one of 12 distinct strata of cell processes within the depth of the retina, and all 12 are read out in parallel for transmission via the optic nerve to higher visual centers.