Getting to Grips with Neuronal Diversity

The concept of a neuronal type can be quite slippery. Just when you think you’ve got it in hand, it can jump out of your grasp like the soap in the shower. This probably explains why so many articles in recent years have claimed to address the molecular mechanisms that generate retinal diversity and yet have ended up focusing on just a few of its many neuronal types. The aim of this article is to set out the problems inherent in the concept of a neuronal type and discuss some of the ways in which a particular kind of spatial organization, the neuronal mosaic, can provide a tool to get to grips with it.

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