In recent years, sensory neuroscientists have made major efforts to dissect the structure and
function of ribbon synapses which process sensory information in the eye and ear. This …

The first synapse of the retina plays a fundamental role in the visual system. Due to its
importance, it is critical that it encodes information from the outside world with the greatest …

The retinal degenerative diseases, which together constitute a leading cause of hereditary
blindness worldwide, are largely untreatable. Development of reliable methods to culture …

Calcium influx through voltage-gated Ca (CaV) channels is the first step in synaptic
transmission. This review concerns CaV channels at ribbon synapses in primary sense …

Light-evoked voltage responses of rod and cone photoreceptor cells in the vertebrate retina
must be converted to a train of synaptic vesicle release events for transmission to …

Vertebrate vision begins with light absorption by rod and cone photoreceptors, which
transmit signals from their synaptic terminals to second-order neurons: bipolar and …

Rod photoreceptors (PRs) use ribbon synapses to transmit visual information. To signal 'no
light detected'they release glutamate continually to activate post-synaptic receptors. When …

Neurons enhance their computational power by combining linear and nonlinear
transformations in extended dendritic trees. Rich, spatially distributed processing is rarely …

Glutamate release from rod and cone photoreceptor cells involves presynaptic ribbons
composed largely of the protein RIBEYE. To examine roles of ribbons in rods and cones, we …

To encode light-dependent changes in membrane potential, rod and cone photoreceptors
utilize synaptic ribbons to sustain continuous exocytosis while making rapid, fine …