| Shatz Home | Research | People | Publications | Images | Movies | Contact Info |    

 
Shatz Lab Movies

Expt.mov

Movies of the calcium imaging experiment that show the spontaneous retinal waves as seen through a microscope. The dimensions of the picture are 1.4 mm by 1.2 mm, showing the activity of thousands of RGCs. (Each RGC is about the size of one pixel in this movie.) The initial view is of the retina before the background is subtracted &endash; the subsequent movie has the background subtracted so you only see changes in fluorescence. Areas of the retina that are active become dark due to calcium entry caused by wave activity. These four waves are pictured in the "waves.tif" slide. This movie is shown in real time.

Model.mov

A computer simulation of the retinal waves, picturing two cell layers involved in the wave activity. Waves travel across the amacrine cell layer (bottom- this is a layer of nerve cells called amacrine cell interneurons that send inputs to the RGCs) and are displayed in the ganglion cell layer (top). The calcium imaging experiment shown in the first movie above only shows the activity in the ganglion cell layer, corresponding to the activity in the top frame. Our computer model shows how these waves are driven by activity in the amacrine cell layer, and thus shows the underlying amacrine cell activity thought to drive retinal waves. The model, then, demonstrates that a special early circuit of RGCs and interneurons set up the waves, which essentially are "test patterns" run in the eye in preparation for later vision.

 Video_segment_1_-_WAVES.MPG

Feller, M.B., D.P. Wellis, D. Stellwagen, F.S. Werblin and C.J. Shatz (1996) Requirement for cholinergic synaptic transmission in the propagation of spontaneous retinal waves. Science 272:1182-1187.


Video_Segment_2_-_SIMUL.MPG

Feller, M.B., Butts, D., Aaron, H., Stellwagen, D., Rokhsar, D., and Shatz, C.J. (1997) Dynamic properties shape spatiotemporal properties of retinal waves. Neuron 19: 293-306.

 
Video_Segment_3 - FORSK.MPG
Retinal Waves in Forskolin
 
Stellwagen, D., and Shatz, C.J. (2002) An Instructive Role for Retinal Waves in the Development of Retinogeniculate Connectivity.  Neuron, Vol. 33. 357-367. January 31, 2002.