Digital museum of retinal ganglion cells with dense anatomy and physiology

Most digital brain atlases have macroscopic resolution and are confined to a single imaging modality. Here we present a new kind of resource that combines dense maps of anatomy and physiology at cellular resolution. The resource encompasses almost 400 ganglion cells from a single patch of mouse retina, and a digital “museum” provides a 3D interactive view of each cell’s anatomy as well as graphs of its visual responses. To demonstrate the utility of the resource, we use it to divide the inner plexiform layer of the retina into four sublaminae defined by a purely anatomical principle of arbor segregation. We also test the hypothesis that the aggregate neurite density of a ganglion cell type should be approximately uniform (“density conservation”). Finally, we find that ganglion cells arborizing in the inner marginal sublamina of the inner plexiform layer exhibit significantly more sustained visual responses on average.