Direction-selective ganglion cells show symmetric participation in retinal waves during development.

Direction-selective ganglion cells (DSGCs) fire robustly for stimuli moving along one direction of motion and are strongly inhibited by stimuli moving in the opposite, or null, direction. In contrast to direction-selective neurons in primary visual cortex, a role for neural activity in the development of direction-selective retinal circuits has not been established. Direction-selective responses are detected at eye opening, before which spontaneous correlated activity known as retinal waves provide directional input to ganglion cells. Indeed, we observed a significant bias in wave propagation along the nasal over temporal direction. Using simultaneous calcium imaging and cell-attached recordings from three genetically labeled DSGC types in mice, we observed that all three DSGC types fire action potentials during retinal waves. However, we found that the direction of wave propagation did not influence DSGC spiking. These results indicate that the mechanisms guiding the formation of the asymmetric inhibition underlying direction selectivity in the retina are not dependent upon the directional properties of retinal waves.