Comparison of electrically elicited responses in rabbit and mouse retinal ganglion cells

Retinal implants are currently the only commercially available devices that can restore vision in patients suffering from a wide range of outer retinal degenerations. In order to improve the clinical outcome, i.e. the quality of elicited vision, a large number of in-vitro experiments probing the impact of electric stimulation on activation of the retina have been conducted. In these studies, however, retinas from many different species have been used which impedes comparisons between studies. Therefore, we measured the responses from four major ganglion cell types to light and electric stimulation in rabbit and mouse retina and compared their responses. We found strong similarities between the two species in transient cells whereas responses in sustained cell types typically did not match as well.