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Updated: Mar 22, 2026

Author Spotlight: Using the Split Retina Technique for Enhanced Access and Accelerated Experiments
Published on: January 16, 2024
Nonlinear Spatiotemporal Integration by Electrical and Chemical Synapses in the Retina
Sidney P Kuo1, Gregory W Schwartz1, Fred Rieke1
1Department of Physiology and Biophysics and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Abstract:
Electrical and chemical synapses coexist in circuits throughout the CNS. Yet, it is not well understood how electrical and chemical synaptic transmission interact to determine the functional output of networks endowed with both types of synapse. We found that release of glutamate from bipolar cells onto retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) was strongly shaped by gap-junction-mediated electrical coupling within the bipolar cell network of the mouse retina. Specifically, electrical synapses spread signals laterally between bipolar cells, and this lateral spread contributed to a nonlinear enhancement of bipolar cell output to visual stimuli presented closely in space and time. Our findings thus (1) highlight how electrical and chemical transmission can work in concert to influence network output and (2) reveal a previously unappreciated circuit mechanism that increases RGC sensitivity to spatiotemporally correlated input, such as that produced by motion.
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