Mapping a complete neural population in the retina. Author Olivier Marre, Dario Amodei, Nikhil Deshmukh, Kolia Sadeghi, Frederick Soo, Timothy Holy, Michael Berry Publication Year 2012 Type Journal Article Abstract Recording simultaneously from essentially all of the relevant neurons in a local circuit is crucial to understand how they collectively represent information. Here we show that the combination of a large, dense multielectrode array and a novel, mostly automated spike-sorting algorithm allowed us to record simultaneously from a highly overlapping population of >200 ganglion cells in the salamander retina. By combining these methods with labeling and imaging, we showed that up to 95% of the ganglion cells over the area of the array were recorded. By measuring the coverage of visual space by the receptive fields of the recorded cells, we concluded that our technique captured a neural population that forms an essentially complete representation of a region of visual space. This completeness allowed us to determine the spatial layout of different cell types as well as identify a novel group of ganglion cells that responded reliably to a set of naturalistic and artificial stimuli but had no measurable receptive field. Thus, our method allows unprecedented access to the complete neural representation of visual information, a crucial step for the understanding of population coding in sensory systems. Keywords Animals, Larva, Action Potentials, Models, Neurological, Neurons, Photic Stimulation, Algorithms, Retina, Urodela, Visual Pathways, Cluster Analysis, Dextrans, Electrodes, Rhodamines, Visual Fields Journal J Neurosci Volume 32 Issue 43 Pages 14859-73 Date Published 2012 Oct 24 ISSN Number 1529-2401 DOI 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0723-12.2012 Alternate Journal J Neurosci PMCID PMC3664031 PMID 23100409 PubMedPubMed CentralGoogle ScholarBibTeXEndNote X3 XML