scholarly journals PiVR: an affordable and versatile closed-loop platform to study unrestrained sensorimotor behavior

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Tadres ◽  
Matthieu Louis
Keyword(s):  
Closed Loop ◽  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Bitter Taste ◽  
High Temporal Resolution ◽  
Orientation Behavior ◽  
Systems Neuroscience ◽  
Optogenetic Stimulation ◽  
Versatile Tool ◽  
Odor Plumes ◽  
Stimulation Of

AbstractTools enabling closed-loop experiments are crucial to delineate causal relationships between the activity of genetically-labeled neurons and specific behaviors. We developed the Raspberry PiVirtual Reality system (PiVR) to conduct closed-loop optogenetic stimulation of neural functions in unrestrained animals. PiVR is an experimental platform that operates at high-temporal resolution (>50 Hz) with low latencies (~10 ms), while being affordable (<$500) and easy to build (<6 hours). This tool was designed to be accessible to a wide public, from highschool students to professional researchers studying systems neuroscience. We illustrate the functionality of PiVR by focusing on sensory navigation in response to gradients of chemicals (chemotaxis) and light (phototaxis). We show how Drosophila flies perform negative chemotaxis by modulating their locomotor speed to avoid locations associated with optogenetically-evoked bitter taste. In Drosophila larvae, we use innate positive chemotaxis to compare orientation behavior elicited by real- and virtual-odor gradients with static shapes as well as by turbulent virtual-odor plumes. Finally, we examine how positive phototaxis emerges in zebrafish larvae from the modulation of turning maneuvers during the ascent of virtual white-light gradients. Besides its application to study chemotaxis and phototaxis, PiVR is a versatile tool designed to bolster efforts to map and to functionally characterize neural circuits.

scholarly journals SkinnerTrax: high-throughput behavior-dependent optogenetic stimulation of Drosophila

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich Stern ◽  
Chung-Hui Yang
Keyword(s):  
High Throughput ◽  
Closed Loop ◽  
Optogenetic Stimulation ◽  
Cns Neurons ◽  
Highly Effective ◽  
Freely Moving ◽  
Stimulation Of

AbstractWhile red-shifted channelrhodopsin has been shown to be highly effective in activating CNS neurons in freely moving Drosophila, there were no existing high-throughput tools for closed-loop, behavior-dependent optogenetic stimulation of Drosophila. Here, we present SkinnerTrax to fill this void. SkinnerTrax stimulates individual flies promptly in response to their being at specific positions or performing specific actions. Importantly, SkinnerTrax was designed for and achieves significant throughput with simple and inexpensive components.

scholarly journals Brain-wide neural dynamics of poststroke recovery induced by optogenetic stimulation

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (33) ◽  
pp. eabd9465
Author(s):  
Shahabeddin Vahdat ◽  
Arjun Vivek Pendharkar ◽  
Terrance Chiang ◽  
Sean Harvey ◽  
Haruto Uchino ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Recovery ◽  
Primary Motor Cortex ◽  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Neural Dynamics ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Optogenetic Stimulation ◽  
Important Mediator ◽  
Stimulation Of

Poststroke optogenetic stimulations can promote functional recovery. However, the circuit mechanisms underlying recovery remain unclear. Elucidating key neural circuits involved in recovery will be invaluable for translating neuromodulation strategies after stroke. Here, we used optogenetic functional magnetic resonance imaging to map brain-wide neural circuit dynamics after stroke in mice treated with and without optogenetic excitatory neuronal stimulations in the ipsilesional primary motor cortex (iM1). We identified key sensorimotor circuits affected by stroke. iM1 stimulation treatment restored activation of the ipsilesional corticothalamic and corticocortical circuits, and the extent of activation was correlated with functional recovery. Furthermore, stimulated mice exhibited higher expression of axonal growth–associated protein 43 in the ipsilesional thalamus and showed increased Synaptophysin+/channelrhodopsin+ presynaptic axonal terminals in the corticothalamic circuit. Selective stimulation of the corticothalamic circuit was sufficient to improve functional recovery. Together, these findings suggest early involvement of corticothalamic circuit as an important mediator of poststroke recovery.

scholarly journals Fast and reversible neural inactivation in macaque cortex by optogenetic stimulation of GABAergic neurons

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhishek De ◽  
Yasmine El-Shamayleh ◽  
Gregory D Horwitz
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Gabaergic Neurons ◽  
Visual Sensitivity ◽  
Cell Type ◽  
Behavioral Deficits ◽  
Inhibitory Cell ◽  
Optogenetic Stimulation ◽  
Cell Type Specific ◽  
Stimulation Of

Optogenetic techniques for neural inactivation are valuable for linking neural activity to behavior but they have serious limitations in macaques. To achieve powerful and temporally precise neural inactivation, we used an adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector carrying the channelrhodopsin-2 gene under the control of a Dlx5/6 enhancer, which restricts expression to GABAergic neurons. We tested this approach in the primary visual cortex, an area where neural inactivation leads to interpretable behavioral deficits. Optical stimulation modulated spiking activity and reduced visual sensitivity profoundly in the region of space represented by the stimulated neurons. Rebound firing, which can have unwanted effects on neural circuits following inactivation, was not observed, and the efficacy of the optogenetic manipulation on behavior was maintained across >1000 trials. We conclude that this inhibitory cell-type-specific optogenetic approach is a powerful and spatiotemporally precise neural inactivation tool with broad utility for probing the functional contributions of cortical activity in macaques.

scholarly journals Dynamic integration of multisensory turn commands supports active reorienting during ongoing navigation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy A. Currier ◽  
Katherine I. Nagel
Keyword(s):  
Closed Loop ◽  
Orientation Behavior ◽  
Multiple Modalities ◽  
Systems Neuroscience ◽  
Dynamic Integration ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Over Time

SummaryA longstanding goal of systems neuroscience is to quantitatively describe how the brain integrates cues from multiple modalities over time. Here we develop a closed-loop orienting paradigm in Drosophila to study the algorithms by which stimuli from different modalities are combined during ongoing navigation. We show that flies faced with an attractive visual and an aversive mechanosensory cue exhibit sequential responses, first turning away from the co-localized stimuli before turning back toward them. We also find that the presence of the aversive cue slows flies’ turns toward the attractive target, suggesting that conflicting unimodal turn commands are summed to produce multisensory turns of intermediate velocity. We then test a series of computational frameworks and find that integration is best described by a model in which multimodal stimuli are continuously and dynamically scaled, converted into turn commands, and then summed to produce ongoing orientation behavior.

scholarly journals Optogenetic Dissection of Neural Circuits Underlying Stress-Induced Mood Disorders

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing Liu ◽  
Zhinuo Zhang ◽  
Wenjuan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Mood Disorders ◽  
Stress Reactivity ◽  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Web Of Science ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Social Avoidance ◽  
Optogenetic Stimulation ◽  
Induced Mood ◽  
Stimulation Of

Objectives: This review aims to (i) summarize the literature on optogenetic applications of different stress-induced mood disorder models of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and its projection circuits, and (ii) examine methodological variability across the literature and how such variations may influence the underlying circuits of stress-induced mood disorders.Methods: A variety of databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Elsevier, Springer, and Wiley) were systematically searched to identify optogenetic studies that applied to mood disorders in the context of stress.Results: Eleven studies on optogenetic stimulation of the mPFC and the effect of its efferent circuitry on anxiety- and depression-like behaviors in different rodent models were selected. The results showed that the optogenetics (i) can provide insights into the underlying circuits of mood disorders in the context of stress (ii) and also points out new therapeutic strategies for treating mood disorders.Conclusions: These findings indicate a clear role for the mPFC in social avoidance, and highlight the central role of stress reactivity circuitry that may be targeted for the treatment of stress-induced mood disorders.

scholarly journals Incerto-thalamic modulation of fear via GABA and dopamine

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Archana Venkataraman ◽  
Sarah C. Hunter ◽  
Maria Dhinojwala ◽  
Diana Ghebrezadik ◽  
JiDong Guo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brain Regions ◽  
Zona Incerta ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
Functional Connections ◽  
Optogenetic Stimulation ◽  
Fear Generalization ◽  
Stimulation Of

AbstractFear generalization and deficits in extinction learning are debilitating dimensions of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Most understanding of the neurobiology underlying these dimensions comes from studies of cortical and limbic brain regions. While thalamic and subthalamic regions have been implicated in modulating fear, the potential for incerto-thalamic pathways to suppress fear generalization and rescue deficits in extinction recall remains unexplored. We first used patch-clamp electrophysiology to examine functional connections between the subthalamic zona incerta and thalamic reuniens (RE). Optogenetic stimulation of GABAergic ZI → RE cell terminals in vitro induced inhibitory post-synaptic currents (IPSCs) in the RE. We then combined high-intensity discriminative auditory fear conditioning with cell-type-specific and projection-specific optogenetics in mice to assess functional roles of GABAergic ZI → RE cell projections in modulating fear generalization and extinction recall. In addition, we used a similar approach to test the possibility of fear generalization and extinction recall being modulated by a smaller subset of GABAergic ZI → RE cells, the A13 dopaminergic cell population. Optogenetic stimulation of GABAergic ZI → RE cell terminals attenuated fear generalization and enhanced extinction recall. In contrast, optogenetic stimulation of dopaminergic ZI → RE cell terminals had no effect on fear generalization but enhanced extinction recall in a dopamine receptor D1-dependent manner. Our findings shed new light on the neuroanatomy and neurochemistry of ZI-located cells that contribute to adaptive fear by increasing the precision and extinction of learned associations. In so doing, these data reveal novel neuroanatomical substrates that could be therapeutically targeted for treatment of PTSD.

scholarly journals Involvement of MCH-oxytocin neural relay within the hypothalamus in murine nursing behavior

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoko Kato ◽  
Harumi Katsumata ◽  
Ayumu Inutsuka ◽  
Akihiro Yamanaka ◽  
Tatsushi Onaka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mammalian Species ◽  
Virgin Female ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Hypothalamic Nucleus ◽  
Male Mice ◽  
Hypothalamic Area ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
Genetic Ablation ◽  
Optogenetic Stimulation ◽  
Stimulation Of

AbstractMultiple sequential actions, performed during parental behaviors, are essential elements of reproduction in mammalian species. We showed that neurons expressing melanin concentrating hormone (MCH) in the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) are more active in rodents of both sexes when exhibiting parental nursing behavior. Genetic ablation of the LHA-MCH neurons impaired maternal nursing. The post-birth survival rate was lower in pups born to female mice with congenitally ablated MCH neurons under control of tet-off system, exhibiting reduced crouching behavior. Virgin female and male mice with ablated MCH neurons were less interested in pups and maternal care. Chemogenetic and optogenetic stimulation of LHA-MCH neurons induced parental nursing in virgin female and male mice. LHA-MCH GABAergic neurons project fibres to the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus (PVN) neurons. Optogenetic stimulation of PVN induces nursing crouching behavior along with increasing plasma oxytocin levels. The hypothalamic MCH neural relays play important functional roles in parental nursing behavior in female and male mice.

Direct optogenetic stimulation of smooth muscle cells to control gastric contractility

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Patejdl ◽  
M Vogt ◽  
B Schulz ◽  
A Wagdi ◽  
J Lebert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Smooth Muscle ◽  
Smooth Muscle Cells ◽  
Muscle Cells ◽  
Optogenetic Stimulation ◽  
Stimulation Of
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