A Polyaxonal Amacrine Cell Population in the Primate Retina

Amacrine cells are the most diverse and least understood cell class in the retina. Polyaxonal amacrine cells (PACs) are a unique subset identified by multiple long axonal processes. To explore their functional properties, populations of PACs were identified by their distinctive radially propagating spikes in large-scale high-density multielectrode recordings of isolated macaque retina. One group of PACs exhibited stereotyped functional properties and receptive field mosaic organization similar to that of parasol ganglion cells. These PACs had receptive fields coincident with their dendritic fields, but much larger axonal fields, and slow radial spike propagation. They also exhibited ON-OFF light responses, transient response kinetics, sparse and coordinated firing during image transitions, receptive fields with antagonistic surrounds and fine spatial structure, nonlinear spatial summation, and strong homotypic neighbor electrical coupling. These findings reveal the functional organization and collective visual signaling by a distinctive, high-density amacrine cell population.