Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience (February 2012/Volume 6/Article 8)  Neural oscillations play an important role in normal brain activity, but also manifest during Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and other pathological conditions.  The contribution of these aberrant oscillations to the function of the surviving brain remains unclear.  In recording from retina in a mouse model of retinal degeneration (RD), the authors found that the incidence of oscillatory activity varied across different cell classes, evidence that some retinal networks are more affected by functional changes than others.  This aberrant activity was driven by an independent inhibitory amacrine cell oscillator.  By stimulating the surviving circuitry at different stages of the neurodegenerative process, the authors found that this dystrophic oscillator further compromises the function of the retina.  These data reveal that retinal remodeling can exacerbate the visual deficit, and that aberrant synaptic activity could be targeted for RD treatment.

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