Mammalian retinas contain a surprising diversity of cell types.
Amacrine cells, upon which we have especially concentrated, exist in at least 20 different morphological subclasses. By fluorescent staining many of these classes can be visualized by distinct, reproducible populations in histological material or intact retinas in vitro during electrophysiological recording. At present, we have two main lines of work. The first is a systematic, quantitative study of the mosaics and arrays of retinal neurons. The goal is to account for all of players in the retina's microcircuitry.