Data from: Inhibition decorrelates visual feature representations in the inner retina

The retina extracts visual features for transmission to the brain. Different types of bipolar cell split the photoreceptor input into parallel channels and provide the excitatory drive for downstream visual circuits. Mouse bipolar cell types have been described at great anatomical and genetic detail, but a similarly deep understanding of their functional diversity is lacking. Here, by imaging light-driven glutamate release from more than 13,000 bipolar cell axon terminals in the intact retina, we show that bipolar cell functional diversity is generated by the interplay of dendritic excitatory inputs and axonal inhibitory inputs. The resulting centre and surround components of bipolar cell receptive fields interact to decorrelate bipolar cell output in the spatial and temporal domains. Our findings highlight the importance of inhibitory circuits in generating functionally diverse excitatory pathways and suggest that decorrelation of parallel visual pathways begins as early as the second synapse of the mouse visual system.视网膜负责提取视觉特征并将其传递至大脑。不同类型的双极细胞（bipolar cell）可将感光细胞（photoreceptor）的输入信号拆解为多条并行通路，并为下游视觉环路提供兴奋性驱动。目前学界已对小鼠双极细胞的解剖学与遗传学特征开展了极为细致的研究，但对其功能多样性的同等深度认知仍存在缺失。本研究通过对完整视网膜中超过13000个双极细胞轴突终末（axon terminals）的光驱动谷氨酸释放进行成像分析，证实双极细胞的功能多样性源于树突兴奋性输入与轴突抑制性输入的协同作用。双极细胞感受野（receptive field）所形成的中心与外周组分会在空间及时间维度上相互作用，从而实现双极细胞输出信号的去相关。本研究结果凸显了抑制性环路在生成功能多样性兴奋性通路中的关键作用，并表明并行视觉通路的去相关过程最早可始于小鼠视觉系统的第二突触位点。