A computational framework linking synaptic adaptation to circuit behaviors in the early visual system

Retina ribbon synapses are the first synapses in the visual system. Unlike the conventional synapses in the central nervous system triggered by action potentials, ribbon synapses are uniquely driven by graded membrane potentials and are thought to transfer early sensory information faithfully. However, how ribbon synapses compress the visual signals and contribute to visual adaptation in retina circuits is less understood. To this end, we introduce a physiologically constrained module for the ribbon synapse, termed Ribbon Adaptive Block (RAB), and an extended “hierarchical Linear-Nonlinear-Synapse” (hLNS) framework for the retina circuit. Our models can elegantly reproduce a wide range of experimental recordings on synaptic and circuit-level adaptive behaviors across different cell types and species. In particular, it shows strong robustness to unseen stimulus protocols. Intriguingly, when using the hLNS framework to fit intra-cellular recordings from the retina circuit under stimuli similar to natural conditions, we revealed rich and diverse adaptive time constants of ribbon synapses. Furthermore, we predicted a frequency-sensitive gain-control strategy for the synapse between the photoreceptor and the CX bipolar cell, which differ from the classic contrast-based strategy in retina circuits. Overall, our framework provides a powerful analytical tool for exploring synaptic adaptation mechanisms in early sensory coding.