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Melanopsin-driven increases in maintained activity enhance thalamic visual response reliability across a simulated

Riccardo Storchi1, Nina Milosavljevic1, Cyril G Eleftheriou1

  • 1Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, M13 9PT Manchester, United Kingdom;

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Melanopsin photoreception enhances neural firing in the visual system during dawn. This improves the reliability of fast visual responses and signals changing light intensity.

Keywords:
DREADDirradiancemelanopsinneural codingsilent substitution

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Vision Science
  • Photobiology

Background:

  • The visual system processes light intensity changes, but slow alterations like dawn are understudied.
  • Early visual pathways' response to gradual irradiance shifts remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how the early visual system represents gradual changes in light intensity during simulated dawn.
  • To identify the neural mechanisms underlying visual system adaptation to changing irradiance.

Main Methods:

  • Electrophysiological recordings in the mouse dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN).
  • Simulated dawn with controlled irradiance ramps.
  • Genetic (knockout, chemogenetics) and physiological (receptor-silent substitution) manipulations.

Main Results:

  • Increased baseline neural firing in the dLGN during rising irradiance, affecting both ON and OFF response units.
  • Melanopsin photoreception identified as the source of increased firing at higher irradiances.
  • Enhanced firing correlated with improved amplitude and up to threefold increase in single-trial reliability of fast visual responses.

Conclusions:

  • Melanopsin-driven dLGN excitability increases during dawn, conveying irradiance information.
  • This adaptation enhances signal-to-noise ratio for rapid visual processing.
  • The study elucidates a key mechanism for visual adaptation to changing ambient light.