The function of any neural circuit is governed by connectivity of neurons in the circuit and the computations performed by the neurons. Recent research on retinal function has substantially advanced understanding in both areas. First, visual information is transmitted to the brain by at least 17 distinct retinal ganglion cell types defined by characteristic morphology, light response properties, and central projections. These findings provide a much more accurate view of the parallel visual pathways emanating from the retina than do previous models, and they highlight the importance of identifying distinct cell types and their connectivity in other neural circuits. Second, encoding of visual information involves significant temporal structure and interactions in the spike trains of retinal neurons. The functional importance of this structure is revealed by computational analysis of encoding and decoding, an approach that may be applicable to understanding the function of other neural circuits.

中文翻译：

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灵长类视网膜中的信息处理：电路和编码。

任何神经回路的功能都由回路中神经元的连通性和神经元执行的计算决定。视网膜功能的最新研究在这两个领域都已取得了实质性的进展。首先，视觉信息通过至少17种不同的视网膜神经节细胞类型传输到大脑，这些类型由特征形态，光响应特性和中心投影定义。这些发现提供了比以前的模型更精确的视网膜平行视觉通路视图，并且它们突出了识别不同细胞类型及其在其他神经回路中的连通性的重要性。其次，视觉信息的编码涉及视网膜神经元的尖峰序列中的重要时间结构和相互作用。