All-optical interrogation of neural circuits
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1
University College London, Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, United Kingdom
Neural circuits display complex spatiotemporal patterns of activity on the millisecond timescale during behavior. Understanding how these activity patterns drive behavior is a fundamental problem in neuroscience, and remains a major challenge due to the complexity of their spatiotemporal dynamics. The ability to manipulate activity in genetically defined sets of neurons on the millisecond timescale using optogenetics has provided a powerful new tool for making causal links between neuronal activity and behavior. However, conventional optogenetic experiments typically involve simultaneous activation of a large fraction of a neural population, which is unphysiological. We have recently developed a novel approach, which combines simultaneous two-photon calcium imaging and two-photon targeted optogenetic photostimulation with the use of a spatial light modulator (SLM) to provide ‘all-optical’ readout and manipulation of the same neurons in vivo. This approach enables reading and writing of activity in neural circuits with single-cell resolution and single action potential precision during behavior. I will describe the power, limitations and future potential of this approach; and discuss how it can be used to address many important problems in neuroscience, including transforming our search for the neural code and the links between neural circuit activity and behavior.
Keywords:
Behavior,
neural circuits,
optogenetics,
brain connections,
neuronal networks
Conference:
14th Meeting of the Asian-Pacific Society for Neurochemistry, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 27 Aug - 30 Aug, 2016.
Presentation Type:
Plenary Lecture 2
Topic:
14th Meeting of the Asian-Pacific Society for Neurochemistry
Citation:
Häusser
M
(2016). All-optical interrogation of neural circuits.
Conference Abstract:
14th Meeting of the Asian-Pacific Society for Neurochemistry.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fncel.2016.36.00002
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Received:
26 Jul 2016;
Published Online:
11 Aug 2016.
*
Correspondence:
Prof. Michael Häusser, University College London, Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, Gower Street, London, United Kingdom, m.hausser@ucl.ac.uk