AUTHOR=He Liuyuan , He Yutao , Ma Lei , Huang Tiejun TITLE=A theoretical model reveals specialized synaptic depressions and temporal frequency tuning in retinal parallel channels JOURNAL=Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience VOLUME=16 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/computational-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fncom.2022.1034446 DOI=10.3389/fncom.2022.1034446 ISSN=1662-5188 ABSTRACT=

In the Outer Plexiform Layer of a retina, a cone pedicle provides synaptic inputs for multiple cone bipolar cell (CBC) subtypes so that each subtype formats a parallelized processing channel to filter visual features from the environment. Due to the diversity of short-term depressions among cone-CBC contacts, these channels have different temporal frequency tunings. Here, we propose a theoretical model based on the hierarchy Linear-Nonlinear-Synapse framework to link the synaptic depression and the neural activities of the cone-CBC circuit. The model successfully captures various frequency tunings of subtype-specialized channels and infers synaptic depression recovery time constants inside circuits. Furthermore, the model can predict frequency-tuning behaviors based on synaptic activities. With the prediction of region-specialized UV cone parallel channels, we suggest the acute zone in the zebrafish retina supports detecting light-off events at high temporal frequencies.