scholarly journals In vivo calcium imaging of CA3 pyramidal neuron populations in adult mouse hippocampus

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwendolin Schoenfeld ◽  
Stefano Carta ◽  
Peter Rupprecht ◽  
Aslı Ayaz ◽  
Fritjof Helmchen

Neuronal population activity in the hippocampal CA3 subfield is implicated in cognitive brain functions such as memory processing and spatial navigation. However, because of its deep location in the brain, the CA3 area has been difficult to target with modern calcium imaging approaches. Here, we achieved chronic two-photon calcium imaging of CA3 pyramidal neurons with the red fluorescent calcium indicator R-CaMP1.07 in anesthetized and awake mice. We characterize CA3 neuronal activity at both the single-cell and population level and assess its stability across multiple imaging days. During both anesthesia and wakefulness, nearly all CA3 pyramidal neurons displayed calcium transients. Most of the calcium transients were consistent with a high incidence of bursts of action potentials, based on calibration measurements using simultaneous juxtacellular recordings and calcium imaging. In awake mice, we found state-dependent differences with striking large and prolonged calcium transients during locomotion. We estimate that trains of >30 action potentials over 3 s underlie these salient events. Their abundance in particular subsets of neurons was relatively stable across days. At the population level, we found that coactivity within the CA3 network was above chance level and that co-active neuron pairs maintained their correlated activity over days. Our results corroborate the notion of state-dependent spatiotemporal activity patterns in the recurrent network of CA3 and demonstrate that at least some features of population activity, namely coactivity of cell pairs and likelihood to engage in prolonged high activity, are maintained over days.

1998 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 2181-2190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajay Kapur ◽  
Mark F. Yeckel ◽  
Richard Gray ◽  
Daniel Johnston

Kapur, Ajay, Mark F. Yeckel, Richard Gray, and Daniel Johnston. L-type calcium channels are required for one form of hippocampal mossy fiber LTP. J. Neurophysiol. 79: 2181–2190, 1998. The requirement of postsynaptic calcium influx via L-type channels for the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) of mossy fiber input to CA3 pyramidal neurons was tested for two different patterns of stimulation. Two types of LTP-inducing stimuli were used based on the suggestion that one of them, brief high-frequency stimulation (B-HFS), induces LTP postsynaptically, whereas the other pattern, long high-frequency stimulation (L-HFS), induces mossy fiber LTP presynaptically. To test whether or not calcium influx into CA3 pyramidal neurons is necessary for LTP induced by either pattern of stimulation, nimodipine, a L-type calcium channel antagonist, was added during stimulation. In these experiments nimodipine blocked the induction of mossy fiber LTP when B-HFS was given [34 ± 5% (mean ± SE) increase in control versus 7 ± 4% in nimodipine, P < 0.003]; in contrast, nimodipine did not block the induction of LTP with L-HFS (107 ± 10% in control vs. 80 ± 9% in nimodipine, P > 0.05). Administration of nimodipine after the induction of LTP had no effect on the expression of LTP. In addition, B- and L-HFS delivered directly to commissural/associational fibers in stratum radiatum failed to induce a N-methyl-d-aspartate-independent form of LTP, obviating the possibility that the presumed mossy fiber LTP resulted from potentiation of other synapses. Nimodipine had no effect on calcium transients recorded from mossy fiber presynaptic terminals evoked with the B-HFS paradigm but reduced postsynaptic calcium transients. Our results support the hypothesis that induction of mossy fiber LTP by B-HFS is mediated postsynaptically and requires entry of calcium through L-type channels into CA3 neurons.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Zhu ◽  
Harrison A Grier ◽  
Raghav Tandon ◽  
Changjia Cai ◽  
Andrea Giovannucci ◽  
...  

In many brain areas, neural populations act as a coordinated network whose state is tied to behavior on a moment-by-moment basis and millisecond timescale. Two-photon (2p) calcium imaging is a powerful tool to probe network-scale computation, as it can measure the activity of many individual neurons, monitor multiple layers simultaneously, and sample from identified cell types. However, estimating network states and dynamics from 2p measurements has proven challenging because of noise, inherent nonlinearities, and limitations on temporal resolution. Here we describe RADICaL, a deep learning method to overcome these limitations at the population level. RADICaL extends methods that exploit dynamics in spiking activity for application to deconvolved calcium signals, whose statistics and temporal dynamics are quite distinct from electrophysiologically-recorded spikes. It incorporates a novel network training strategy that exploits the timing of 2p sampling to recover network dynamics with high temporal precision. In synthetic tests, RADICaL infers network states more accurately than previous methods, particularly for high-frequency components. In real 2p recordings from sensorimotor areas in mice performing a "water grab" task, RADICaL infers network states with close correspondence to single-trial variations in behavior, and maintains high-quality inference even when neuronal populations are substantially reduced.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander D. Jacob ◽  
Adam I. Ramsaran ◽  
Andrew J. Mocle ◽  
Lina M. Tran ◽  
Chen Yan ◽  
...  

AbstractMiniaturized fluorescence microscopes for imaging calcium transients are a promising tool for investigating the relationship between behaviour and population-level neuronal activity in rodents. However, commercially available miniature microscopes may be costly, and, because they are closed-source, may not be easily modified based on particular experimental requirements. Here, we describe how to build and use a low-cost compact head-mounted endoscope (CHEndoscope) system for in vivo calcium imaging. The CHEndoscope uses an implanted gradient index (GRIN) lens along with the genetically encoded calcium indicator GCaMP6 to image calcium transients from hundreds of neurons simultaneously in awake behaving mice. This system is affordable, open-source, and flexible, permitting modification depending on the particular experiment. This Unit describes in detail the assembly, surgical implantation, data collection, and processing of calcium signals using the CHEndoscope system. The aim of this open framework model is to provide an accessible set of miniaturized calcium imaging tools for the neuroscience research community.Significance StatementThe ability to image calcium transients in awake, behaving rodents using miniature microscopes opens exciting and novel avenues for gaining insights into how information is encoded in neural circuits. The development of this tool has already had a significant impact on neuroscience research. The cost of commercial systems, however, may be prohibitive for many laboratories. Here, we describe an affordable, open-source compact head-mounted endoscope (CHEndoscope) system for performing in vivo calcium imaging in freely-behaving mice. CHEndoscopes may be manufactured by individual laboratories at relatively minor cost. Our hope is that greater availability of affordable, open-source tools (such as the one presented here) will accelerate the pace of discoveries in systems neuroscience.


2008 ◽  
Vol 100 (3) ◽  
pp. 1668-1676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takuya Sasaki ◽  
Naoya Takahashi ◽  
Norio Matsuki ◽  
Yuji Ikegaya

Large-scale recording from a population of neurons is a promising strategy for approaching the study of complex brain functions. Taking advantage of the fact that action potentials reliably evoke transient calcium fluctuations in the cell body, functional multineuron calcium imaging (fMCI) monitors the suprathreshold activity of hundreds of neurons. However, a limitation of fMCI is its semi-manual procedure of spike extraction from somatic calcium fluctuations, which is not only time consuming but is also associated with human errors. Here we describe a novel automatic method that combines principal-component analysis and support vector machine. This simple algorithm determines the timings of the spikes in calcium fluorescence traces more rapidly and reliably than human operators.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuni Kay ◽  
Bruce E. Herring

AbstractWhile efficient methods are well established for studying postsynaptic protein regulation of glutamatergic synapses in the mammalian central nervous system, similarly efficient methods are lacking for studying proteins regulating presynaptic function. In the present study, we introduce an optical/electrophysiological method for investigating presynaptic molecular regulation. Here, using an optogenetic approach, we selectively stimulate genetically modified presynaptic CA3 pyramidal neurons in the hippocampus and measure optically-induced excitatory postsynaptic currents produced in unmodified postsynaptic CA1 pyramidal neurons. While such use of optogenetics is not novel, previous implementation methods do not allow basic quantification of the changes in synaptic strength produced by genetic manipulations. We find that incorporating simultaneous recordings of fiber volley amplitude provides a control for optical stimulation intensity and, as a result, creates a metric of synaptic efficacy that can be compared across experimental conditions. In the present study, we utilize our new method to demonstrate that inhibition of synaptotagmin 1 expression in CA3 pyramidal neurons leads to a significant reduction in Schaffer collateral synapse function, an effect that is masked with conventional electrical stimulation. Our hope is that this method will expedite our understanding of molecular regulatory pathways that govern presynaptic function.


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