Main description:

Researchers in recent decades have elucidated signal transduction in the retina and the function of the visual cortex. The highly flexible nature of neural circuits in the visual cortex especially during the critical period has been an interesting subject for studying neural plasticity and development. Recent advances in the visual neurosciences of the vertebrate retina and the visual cortex were discussed during the 12th Keio International Symposium for Life Science and Medicine, meeting jointly with Vision Forum 2002. Contributions to the symposium collected in this volume reflect the convergence of physiological, cell biological, molecular, mathematical, and clinical approaches. The book covers topics ranging from phototransduction to visual information processing in the primary visual cortex, and includes clinical studies on hereditary night blindness, creating a valuable source of information for researchers and clinicians in the visual neurosciences.

Contents:

Psychophysics to Biophysics: How a Perception Depends on Circuits, Synapses, and Vesicles.- Phototransduction in Rods and Cones, and Beyond.- Efficiency of Phototransduction Cascade in Cones.- Voltage-Gated Ion Channels in Human Photoreceptors: Na+ and Hyperpolarization-Activated Cation Channels.- Neuroinformatics in Vision Science: NRV Project and VISIOME Platform.- The Cone Pedicle, the First Synapse in the Retina.- Transmission at the Mammalian Cone Photoreceptor Basal Synapse.- Impaired Transmission from Photoreceptors to Bipolar Cells: Mouse Models.- Selective Dysfunction of On- and/or Off-Bipolar Cell in Human Diseases.- Neural Circuit Contributing to the Formation of the Receptive Surround.- GABAergic Modulation of Ephaptic Feedback in the Outer Retina.- SN1 Catalyzes Transport of Glutamine Across Muller Cells in Retina.- Some Functions of Amacrine Cells.- Synaptic Mechanisms Underlying Direction Selectivity in Rabbit Retinal Ganglion Cells.- Processing and Integration Mechanisms of Visual Transmission in the Retinal Network.- Narrow-Field Amacrine Cells Mediate OFF Signals Between B2 Bipolar and Ganglion Cells in the Mouse Retina.- Functional Roles of Action Potentials and Na Currents in Amacrine Cells.- Neural Mechanisms of Synchronous Oscillations in Retinal Ganglion Cells.- Adaptation of the Retinal Code: What the Eye Does Not Tell the Brain.- Coding Properties of the Avian ON-OFF Retinal Ganglion Cells.- Spatiotemporal Changes in Gap Junctional Communication During Retinal Development and Regeneration of Adult Newt.- Development and Plasticity in the Postnatal Mouse Retina.- Representation of Visual Information in Simple and Complex Cells in the Primary Visual Cortex.- Diversity of Computation of Orientation and Direction Preference by Visual Cortical Neurons: An Intracellular Reexamination.- Assembly of Receptive Fields in Cat Visual Cortex.- Local Circuit in the Cerebral Cortex.- Properties and Possible Mechanisms of Response Modulation by the Receptive Field Surround in the Cat Primary Visual Cortex.- Representation of Surface Luminance and Brightness in Macaque Visual Cortex.- Inhibitory Circuits that Control Critical Period Plasticity in Developing Visual Cortex.- Substrates of Rapid Plasticity in Developing Visual Cortex.- Actions of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor on Function and Morphology of Visual Cortical Neurons.- Distance and Size Estimation in the Tiger Beetle Larva: Behavioral, Morphological, and Electrophysiological Approaches.- Extraocular Photoreception of a Marine Gastropoda, Onchidium: Three-Dimensional Analysis of the Axons of Dermal Photoreceptor Cells in the Dorsal Mantle Examined with a High-Voltage Electron Microscope.- The Cystein-Rich Domains of RDGA, a Drosophila Eye-Specific Diacylglycerol Kinase, Are Required for Protein Localization and Enzyme Activity.- Polymorphic Variations in Long- and Middle-Wavelength-Sensitive Opsin Gene Loci in Crab-Eating Monkeys.- S- and M-Cone Electroretinograms in rd7 Mice with NR2E3 Gene Mutation.- Activation of Group III Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor Suppresses the Membrane Currents in Newt Photoreceptors.- Quantitative Analysis of Signal Transduction in the Olfactory Receptor Cell.- RPE65-Related Proteins Constitute a Retinoid- and Carotenoid-Metabolizing Protein Family Throughout the Animal and Plant Kingdom.- Simulation Analysis of Retinal Horizontal Cells.- External Proton Mediates the Feedback from Horizontal Cells to Cones in the Newt Retina.- A Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor Mediates Synaptic Transmission from Blue-Sensitive Cones to ON-Bipolar Cells in Carp Retina.- Mathematical Model Study of Continuous Transmitter Release in the Synaptic Terminal of Goldfish Retinal Bipolar Cells.- The Role of Ionic Currents in Shaping Light Responses of Retinal Bipolar Cell.- Asymmetric Temporal Properties in the Receptive Field of Transient Amacrine Cells in Carp Retina.- Spatial Asymmetry and Temporal Delay of Inhibitory Amacrine Cells Produce Directional Selectivity in Retina.- Fast Calcium Imagings of Amacrine Cell Dendrites in Horizontally Sliced Goldfish Retina.- Distribution and Morphological Features of the Retinal Ganglion Cells in Chicks.- Homotypic Gap Junction Connections Between Retinal Amacrine Cells.- A Retinal Ganglion Cell Model Based on Discrete Stochastic Ion Channels.- Retinal Adaptation to the Spatiotemporal Statistical Structure of Visual Input.- Zinc as a Neurotransmitter in the Rat Retina.- Suppression by Odorants of Voltage-Gated and Ligand-Gated Channels in Retinal Neurons.- Dopamine D1 Receptor on Cultured Muller Cells.- Origin of Intracellular Ca2+ Concentration Increase by Hypoxia Differs Between Muller Cells and Ganglion Cells.- Expression of Otx2 in Regenerating and Developing Newt Retina.- Genes Involved in the Retinal Development Are Also Expressed in the Retinal Regeneration.- Difference in Survival and Axonal Regeneration Between Alpha and Beta Types of Cat Retinal Ganglion Cells.- Survival-Promoting Effect of Electrical Stimulation on Axotomized Retinal Ganglion Cells.- A New CI Channel Family Defined by Vitelliform Macular Dystrophy.- Pharmacological Aspects of Nilvadipine-Induced Preservation of Retinal Degeneration in RCS Rat Analyzed by mRNA Profiling Assay.- Nilvadipine, a Ca2+ Antagonist, Effectively Preserves Photoreceptor Functions in Royal College of Surgeons Rat.- Aberrantly Expressed Recoverin in Tumor Tissues from Gastric Cancer Patients.- Cancer-Associated Retinopathy (CAR) is Effectively Treated by Ca2+ Antagonist Administration.- Effects of Calcium Channel Blockers on Retinal Morphology and Function of rd Mouse.- Chemically Induced Mutations in the Mouse that Affect the Fundus and Electroretinogram.- Unitary Event Analysis of Synchronous Activities in Cat Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN).- Functional Mapping of Neural Activity in the Embryonic Avian Visual System: Optical Recording with a Voltage-Sensitive Dye.- Interactive Vision: A New Columnar System in Layer 2.- Cross-Correlation Study of Network Dynamics in the Cat Primary Visual Cortex.- Contrast-Dependent Gain Control of the Contextual Response Modulation in the Cat Primary Visual Cortex.- Contribution of Excitation and Inhibition to the Stimulus Size- and Orientation-Tuning of Response Modulation by the Receptive Field Surround in the Cat Primary Visual Cortex.- Effects of Chronic Exposure to Vertical Orientation on the Development of Orientation Preference Maps.- Self-Organization Model of Ocular Dominance Columns and Cytochrome Oxidase Blobs in the Primary Visual Cortex of Monkeys and Cats.- Long-Range Horizontal Connections Assist the Formation of Robust Orientation Maps.- Experience-Dependent Self-Organization of Visual Cortical Receptive Fields and Maps.- Distributions of Binocular Phase Disparities in Natural Stereopair Images.- A Network Model for Figure/Ground Determination Based on Contrast Information.- Neural Responses to the Uniform Surface Stimuli in the Visual Cortex of the Cat.- Cascaded Energy Model as the Basis for Neural Processing in V2.- Behavioral and Physiological Study of Color Processing in Human Brain.- Inhibitory Mechanisms Underlying Stimulus-Selective Responses of Inferior Temporal Neurons.- Key Word Index.