# High Resolution Mapping of Foveal Ganglion Cell Receptive Fields in the Living Primate Eye

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER · 2021 · $613,060

## Abstract

The importance for vision of the tiny fovea has been established by centuries of investigation as well as
observations of the devastating consequences of its damage through injury or disease. Though evidence
suggests that the fovea contains the full complement of the two dozen or so classes of ganglion cells found in
peripheral retina, we know little about the physiology of these foveal cells. This gap in our understanding is the
result of challenges in obtaining electrophysiological recordings from this delicate and topographically-complex
structure. These challenges have been overcome by a method developed in our laboratory that allows
simultaneous calcium imaging of the fluorescence responses of hundreds of foveal retinal ganglion cells in
response to visual stimuli. Because this technique allows recording from single cells without damage in the living
eye, we can study the same cells for months or even years, offering the opportunity to characterize the
performance of each cell more thoroughly than has been possible with any prior method. Since the first
submission of the proposal, we have made significant improvements in the expression of calcium indicator,
GCamMP6s, in ganglion cells that increases the extent of expression to greater eccentricities, the fluorescence
signal from each cell, as well as reducing the loss of ganglion cells over time. Moreover, we have designed a
new ophthalmoscope with two independent adaptive optics systems, one dedicated to high resolution stimulus
delivery and a second dedicated to high resolution ganglion cell recording. We have also developed an extensive
battery of visual stimuli to characterize the responses of each cell in space, time, and color. This battery will
include a white noise stimulus capable of identifying the locations and classes of single cone inputs to the
receptive fields of foveal ganglion cells. To assist in cell classification, these physiological observations will be
supplemented with ex vivo and in vivo histological analysis of the morphology of ganglion cell dendritic arbors.
Armed with these improvements, we will undertake a comprehensive survey of both the physiology and anatomy
of the foveal ganglion cell classes that mediate primate foveal vision.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10118312
- **Project number:** 1R01EY031467-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
- **Principal Investigator:** DAVID R WILLIAMS
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $613,060
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-01-01 → 2025-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10118312

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10118312, High Resolution Mapping of Foveal Ganglion Cell Receptive Fields in the Living Primate Eye (1R01EY031467-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10118312. Licensed CC0.

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