A recent study by the Hoon lab published in Current Biology has uncovered new modes of retinal circuit compensation and adaptation in response to impairments seen in congenital stationary night blindness (CSNB). CSNB is a retinal disease where input to a primary retinal pathway is suppressed. Using mouse models that mimic different stages of disease severity, partial vs complete suppression, Khoussine et al., uncovered that the degree of suppression determined the nature of the compensatory measures recruited by the downstream retinal circuit. Partial suppression engaged compensatory measures that preserved normal retinal function whereas complete suppression induced deleterious alterations that eroded retinal visual processing. These findings also reveal substrates in the retinal circuitry that can be targeted for potential therapeutic interventions aimed at restoring visual function. Read the full article here.
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