DOI: 10.7272/q6rv0kz3
title: Asymmetric retinal direction tuning predicts optokinetic eye movements across stimulus conditions

description: Across species, the optokinetic reflex (OKR) stabilizes vision during
 self-motion. OKR occurs when ON direction-selective retinal ganglion cells
 (oDSGCs) detect slow, global image motion on the retina. How oDSGC
 activity is integrated centrally to generate behavior remains unknown.
 Here, we discover mechanisms that contribute to motion encoding in
 vertically-tuned oDSGCs and leverage these findings to empirically define
 signal transformation between retinal output and vertical OKR behavior. We
 demonstrate that motion encoding in vertically-tuned oDSGCs is
 contrast-sensitive and asymmetric for oDSGC types that prefer opposite
 directions. These phenomena arise from the interplay between spike
 threshold nonlinearities and differences in synaptic input weights,
 including shifts in the balance of excitation and inhibition. In behaving
 mice, these neurophysiological observations, along with a central
 subtraction of oDSGC outputs, accurately predict the trajectories of
 vertical OKR across stimulus conditions. Thus, asymmetric tuning across
 competing sensory channels can critically shape behavior. Available here
 are the data associated with these findings.
description: The data included here come from the following sources:
 Behavior: eye tracking data from mice performing the
 vertical optokinetic reflex at multiple stimulus contrasts.
 Electrophysiology: recorded in mouse ex vivo retinas, from
 retinal ganglion cells that project to the medial terminal nucleus
 (vertically-tuned ON direction-selective retinal ganglion cells).
 Cell-attached, voltage-clamp, and current-clamp data are available.
 Stimuli include a bar drifting in 8 directions (10 deg/s), oscillating
 gratings, and full field light increments. Imaging:
 results from both confocal and widefield imaging experiments of mouse
 retinal ganglion cells that project to the contralateral medial terminal
 nucleus. The data are broken up into
 smaller datasets based on experiment type (e.g. behavior, cell-attached,
 voltage-clamp, etc.). A "Format" .HTML file detailing how the
 data are organized exists for each of these smaller datasets. In most
 cases, it is possible to pool data across the smaller datasets (e.g. for
 data that come from the same cell). As a general note, the data are
 largely unprocessed: behavior data contains traces of angular eye position
 across time; cell-attached data contain the time stamps of individual
 action potentials; voltage-clamp data are completely unprocessed time
 series taken directly from amplifier output; Current-clamp data include
 isolated spikes and underlying membrane potential; imaging data contain
 summaries of metrics of interest. Also available are
 two computational models: a leaky integrate and fire model
 ("conductance model") and a model for generating spatial
 distributions of retinal ganglion cell mosaics. Each model also has a
 Format .HTML file which details how to use it. See the
 Methods section of the manuscript for further details on experimental
 design and relevant analyses. See the README.html file for more
 information on working with the datasets.
description: All data are .mat files and all code are .m files. Both can be
 accessed using MATLAB,
 GNU Octave, or
 various other open-source tools that can read structure data from .mat
 files. The Format files are .html and can be opened with any web browser.
 See the README.html file for more information on working with the
 datasets.