Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1980
Associate Professor
Department of Neuroscience
401 Medical Research Laboratory
Tel. (401) 863-2555
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1980
Associate Professor
Department of Neuroscience
401 Medical
Research Laboratory
Tel. (401) 863-2555
The visual system of the brain is highly parallel in its architecture.
A prime example of this is seen in the outputs of the retina, which arise from
many distinct classes of ganglion cells. Each ganglion-cell class performs a
unique filtering operation on the visual scene and distributes its processed
signals to a specific subset of visual centers within the brain. My students
and I are working to understand the meaning of this parallel organization
through electrophysiological and anatomical studies of the mammalian brain and
retina. One major focus of our work is a class of ganglion cells which accounts
for half of the retinal output yet remains almost completely mysterious. We
have devised an in vitro method that permits the first direct correlations among
the structure, visual response properties, and central projections of these
cells. In addition, we are exploring the output targets of these ganglion cells
such as the superior colliculus, a brainstem structure that helps animals orient
toward visual stimuli. We hope to learn how the colliculus transforms the
retinal signals it receives and what this implies about collicular contributions
to visuomotor behavior. Methods used in the laboratory include single-unit
recording, intracellular staining, neuroanatomical tracing techniques, and
immunohistochemistry.
Berson, D.M. and Stein, J.J. (1995) Retinotopic organization of the
superior colliculus in relation to the retinal distribution of afferent ganglion
cells. Visual Neurosci. 12: 671-686.
Stein, J.J. and Berson, D.M.
(1995) On the distribution of gamma cells in the cat retina. Visual
Neurosci. 12: 687-700.
Pu, M., Berson, D.M. and Pan, T. 1994)
Structure and function of retinal ganglion cells innervating the cat's
geniculate wing: An in vitro study. J. Neuroscience. 14:
4338-4358.
Pu, M. and Berson, D.M. (1992) A method for reliable and
permanent intracellular staining of retinal ganglion cells. J. Neurosci.
Methods, 41: 45-51.
Waveform (A), receptive field (B), and light
responses (C,D) of a cat retinal ganglion cell recorded in vitro.