Visual acuity and the formation of receptive fields in the vertebrate retina

Visual acuity is defined as the eye's ability to resolve fine details. To achieve this, the eye's optical system has to project a focused image on the retina, in particular on the fovea, a region having the highest density of photoreceptors, thus having the highest resolution and best color vision. The cones have to respond to the light stimulus and interact with neighbouring neurons to enhance the contrast and sharpen the colour of the image, in effect, improving visual acuity. These neural interactions form receptive fields. How the retina produces receptive fields that underlie the encoding of visual information and that create the highest possible resolution of images is the topic of this application. Research in this area of visual neurobiology not only seeks to answer fascinating questions about how the visual system maximizes its detection capabilities, but bears heavily on the most common forms of low vision and blindness, which are increasing in prevalance as the population ages. The research objective is to reveal the determinants of spatial and temporal acuity in the retina. The principal methodologies are leading-edge electrophysiological recording and cell imaging techniques in animal model retinas.