Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Neuronal coupling in the developing mammalian retina

A A Penn1, R O Wong, C J Shatz

  • 1Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley 94720.

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience
|June 1, 1994
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Placental contribution to neonatal encephalopathy.

Seminars in fetal & neonatal medicine·2021
Same author

Response Properties of a Newly Identified Tristratified Narrow Field Amacrine Cell in the Mouse Retina.

PloS one·2015
Same author

Decision making for seriously compromised newborns: the importance of exploring cultural differences and unintended consequences.

Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association·2013
Same author

Inhibitory inputs tune the light response properties of dopaminergic amacrine cells in mouse retina.

Journal of neurophysiology·2013
Same author

Effect of magnesium sulfate exposure on term neonates.

Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association·2012
Same author

Global hormone profiling of murine placenta reveals Secretin expression.

Placenta·2011
Same journal

Does stimulus preceding negativity reflect predictions in a somatosensory roving paradigm?

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Temporal Dynamics of EEG Reflect Continuous Error Correction During Force Control.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Frontoparietal Hub Connectivity Integrates Information from Multiple Sources.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Mapping the Heart-Brain Continuum beyond Heart Failure: Why Neurology Matters.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Emergence of behavioral tinnitus in gerbils is associated with reduced spontaneous rates in single auditory nerve fibers.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
Same journal

Decoding the neural stages from action and object recognition to mentalizing.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026
See all related articles

Gap junctions correlate ferret retinal ganglion cell activity during development. Neurobiotin tracer revealed coupling in alpha and gamma cells, but not beta cells, suggesting a role in synchronized neural activity.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Developmental Biology
  • Retinal Physiology

Background:

  • Immature ferret retinas exhibit spontaneous, correlated waves of electrical activity in ganglion cell layers during early postnatal development.
  • The limited presence of chemical synapses in early development suggests alternative mechanisms for neural signal correlation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of gap junctions in correlating the electrical activity of retinal ganglion cells during early postnatal development in ferrets.
  • To determine the developmental timeline and cell-type specificity of gap junction-mediated coupling in the ferret retina.

Main Methods:

  • Intracellular injection of Neurobiotin tracer and Lucifer yellow dye into retinal ganglion cells of ferrets from postnatal day 1 (P1) to P45.
  • Analysis of tracer distribution to identify gap junction-mediated cell coupling and its developmental progression.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Morphological identification of coupled cell types, including alpha, beta, and gamma retinal ganglion cells, and amacrine cells.

    • Main Results:

    • Neurobiotin, but not Lucifer yellow, passed through gap junctions, revealing cell coupling as early as P1.
    • Alpha and gamma ganglion cells exhibited homologous coupling and coupled with amacrine cells, with coupling increasing with age.
    • Beta ganglion cells showed no tracer coupling at any developmental stage, despite participating in correlated activity.

    Conclusions:

    • Gap junctions are present in the developing ferret retina and likely contribute to the synchronization of activity in subsets of retinal ganglion cells.
    • The lack of coupling in beta cells indicates that gap junctions are not the sole mediator of correlated retinal activity.
    • The persistence of coupling in adult retinas suggests other circuitry changes contribute to the cessation of spontaneous waves.