{"doi":"10.1113/jp290088","title":"Cellular and synaptic mechanisms of retinal processing","abstract":"Human behaviour relies heavily on vision, and it is no surprise that scientists have long been interested in understanding the organization and function of the visual system. Indeed, there has been intense focus on understanding the first stage of vision, which occurs in the retina and begins when photoreceptors convert light into an electrical signal. The photoreceptor output is further processed through two layers of synapses before visual information is transferred to the brain via the optic nerve. A long-term goal of the field is to understand how the cells and synapses of the retina generate the first stage of vision and to develop treatments for diseases that cause blindness. Within the retina, a basic excitatory pathway forms from the photoreceptors to excitatory interneurons called bipolar cells and then to the retinal ganglion cells, whose axons form the optic nerve. These signals are modulated by networks of (primarily) inhibitory interneurons within the retina – first by horizontal cells and later by amacrine cells. Inhibition shapes the excitatory signals, which ultimately produces a wide variety of light responses in ganglion cells. Indeed, ganglion cells can be divided into discrete cell types that form parallel pathways. These cell types variably signal either bright regions (ON cells) or dark regions (OFF cells) of the visual scene as well many additional features including the direction of motion, stimulus orientation and colour. The key to understanding how the retina works is to identify the component cell types and reveal how their synaptic connections produce specific visual functions. Indeed, the retina has been a model for identifying cell types in the central nervous system. An early effort to distinguish ganglion cell types was described in several classic papers in The Journal of Physiology that highlighted distinct properties of ganglion cell types based on physiological light responses (e.g. Barlow et al., 1964; Caldwell & Daw, 1978; Cleland & Levick, 1974; Enroth-Cugell & Robson, 1966; Oyster, 1968). Using modern methods, we can now further distinguish ganglion cell types, as well as numerous types of interneurons, based on additional dimensions, including cellular morphology, synaptic connections with other cells and genetic profiles (Baden et al., 2016; Bae et al., 2018; Franke et al., 2017; Goetz et al., 2022; Helmstaedter et al., 2013; Li et al., 2024; Park et al., 2020; Tran et al., 2019). Basic features of the retina facilitate the investigation of the component circuits – including the self-contained nature of the tissue coupled with limited feedback from the brain; the ability to reconstruct circuits by electron microscopy across the tissue's limited depth (∼0.2 to 0.4 mm); and the ability to study retinal physiology in vitro using the natural light stimulus. This Special Issue, ‘Cellular and synaptic mechanisms of retinal processing’, highlights recent advances in the field and builds on the Retinal Neurobiology and Visual Processing conference organized by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), held on June 16-21, 2024 in Southbridge, Massachusetts and co-organized by two of us (JBD and WL). The conference brought together over 200 scientists in the field to present and discuss the latest research on several topics: retinal cell types and circuits; mechanisms of retinal development and disease; computational properties; and links between retinal function and behaviour. The Special Issue includes eight papers published over the past year. The authors either participated in the FASEB meeting or answered a call for papers. Three articles in the collection are reviews that provide an accessible introduction to the latest advances in different subfields. Five articles describe original research projects, which include investigations of the role of specific ion channels in retinal function as well as mechanisms of retinal injury and disease. 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Demb","orcid":"0000-0003-2227-9041","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":25,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:58:30.282164Z","pmid":"41139330","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}