Response to change is facilitated by a three-neuron disinhibitory pathway in the tiger salamander retina

Most retinal ganglion cells respond only transiently, for approximately 150 msec at the onset and termination of a light flash. The responses are transient because it has been shown that bipolar-to-ganglion cell transmission is truncated after 150 msec by a feedback inhibition to bipolar cell terminals. The feedback inhibition itself must be delayed by approximately 150 msec to allow the initial bipolar-ganglion cell transmission. This study identifies a three-component serial synaptic pathway from glycinergic amacrine cells to GABAergic amacrine cells to bipolar cell terminals as one source of this delay. We used perforated and whole-cell patch-clamp recordings to measure the timing of light responses in amacrine, bipolar, and ganglion cells under control and glycine and GABA receptor-blocked conditions. Our results suggest that, after a light flash, a population of glycinergic amacrine cells responds first, inhibiting a population of GABAergic amacrine cells for approximately 150 msec. The GABAergic amacrine cells feed back to bipolar terminals, but only after the 150 msec delay, allowing the bipolar terminals to excite ganglion cells for the first 150 msec. Blocking the glycinergic amacrine cell activity with strychnine allows the GABAergic system to become active earlier. GABAergic amacrine cells then inhibit release from bipolar cells earlier. Under these conditions, the ganglion cell response to change would be decreased.