scholarly journals Glial place cells: complementary encoding of spatial information in hippocampal astrocytes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastiano Curreli ◽  
Jacopo Bonato ◽  
Sara Romanzi ◽  
Stefano Panzeri ◽  
Tommaso Fellin
Keyword(s):  
Calcium Imaging ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Population Coding ◽  
Calcium Dynamics ◽  
Information Coding ◽  
Calcium Signals ◽  
Two Photon ◽  
Brain Circuits ◽  
Place Dependence ◽  
Hippocampal Astrocytes

Calcium dynamics into astrocytes influence the activity of nearby neuronal structures. However, because previous reports show that astrocytic calcium signals largely mirror neighboring neuronal activity, current information coding models neglect astrocytes. Using simultaneous two-photon calcium imaging of astrocytes and neurons in the hippocampus of mice navigating a virtual environment, we demonstrate that astrocytic calcium signals actively encode spatial information. Calcium events carrying spatial information occurred in topographically organized astrocytic subregions. Importantly, astrocytes encoded spatial information that was complementary and synergistic to that carried by neurons, improving spatial position decoding when astrocytic signals were considered alongside neuronal ones. These results suggest that the complementary place-dependence of localized astrocytic calcium signals regulates clusters of nearby synapses, enabling dynamic, context-dependent, variations in population coding within brain circuits.

scholarly journals Seizures start as silent microseizures by neuronal ensembles

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Wenzel ◽  
Jordan P. Hamm ◽  
Darcy S. Peterka ◽  
Rafael MD Yuste
Keyword(s):  
Calcium Imaging ◽  
Travelling Wave ◽  
Inhibitory Neurons ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Calcium Dynamics ◽  
Neuronal Ensembles ◽  
Two Photon ◽  
Step Model

AbstractUnderstanding seizure formation and spread remains a critical goal of epilepsy research. While many studies have documented seizure spread, it remains mysterious how they start. We used fast in-vivo two-photon calcium imaging to reconstruct, at cellular resolution, the dynamics of focal cortical seizures as they emerge in epileptic foci (intrafocal), and subsequently propagate (extrafocal). We find that seizures start as intrafocal coactivation of small numbers of neurons (ensembles), which are electrographically silent. These silent “microseizures” expand saltatorily until they break into neighboring cortex, where they progress smoothly and first become detectable by LFP. Surprisingly, we find spatially heterogeneous calcium dynamics of local PV interneuron sub-populations, which rules out a simple role of inhibitory neurons during seizures. We propose a two-step model for the circuit mechanisms of focal seizures, where neuronal ensembles first generate a silent microseizure, followed by widespread neural activation in a travelling wave, which is then detected electrophysiologically.

scholarly journals Long-term Transverse Imaging of the Hippocampus with Glass Microperiscopes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
William T Redman ◽  
Nora S Wolcott ◽  
Luca Montelisciani ◽  
Gabriel Luna ◽  
Tyler D Marks ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Calcium Imaging ◽  
Pyramidal Neurons ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Anatomical Distribution ◽  
Two Photon ◽  
Information Finding ◽  
Apical Dendrites

The hippocampus consists of a stereotyped neuronal circuit repeated along the septal-temporal axis. This transverse circuit contains distinct subfields with stereotyped connectivity that support crucial cognitive processes, including episodic and spatial memory. However, comprehensive measurements across the transverse hippocampal circuit in vivo are intractable with existing techniques. Here, we developed an approach for two-photon imaging of the transverse hippocampal plane in awake mice via implanted glass microperiscopes, allowing optical access to the major hippocampal subfields and to the dendritic arbor of pyramidal neurons. Using this approach, we tracked dendritic morphological dynamics on CA1 apical dendrites and characterized spine turnover. We then used calcium imaging to quantify the prevalence of place and speed cells across subfields. Finally, we measured the anatomical distribution of spatial information, finding a non-uniform distribution of spatial selectivity along the DG-to-CA1 axis. This approach extends the existing toolbox for structural and functional measurements of hippocampal circuitry.

scholarly journals RecV recombinase system for spatiotemporally controlled light-inducible genomic modifications

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Cetin ◽  
Shenqin Yao ◽  
Ben Ouellette ◽  
Pooja Balaram ◽  
Thomas Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Calcium Imaging ◽  
Viral Vectors ◽  
Molecular Tools ◽  
Morphological Reconstruction ◽  
Functional Studies ◽  
Two Photon ◽  
Brain Circuits ◽  
Physiological Properties ◽  
Inducible Protein ◽  
And Function

AbstractBrain circuits are composed of vast numbers of intricately interconnected neurons with diverse molecular, anatomical and physiological properties. To allow highly specific targeting of individual neurons for structural and functional studies, we modified three site-specific DNA recombinases, Cre, Dre and Flp, by combining them with a fungal light-inducible protein, Vivid, so that their recombinase activities can be driven by blue light. We generated viral vectors to express these light-inducible recombinases and demonstrated that they can induce genomic modifications in dense or sparse populations of neurons in live mouse brains controlled by one-photon or two-photon light induction. As an important application, we showed that light-inducible recombinases can produce highly targeted, sparse and strong labeling of individual neurons thereby enabling whole-brain morphological reconstruction to identify their axonal projection specificity. In addition to targeting cortical brain areas, we applied the method in deep targets, with a demonstration of functional calcium imaging. These molecular tools enable spatiotemporally-precise, targeted genomic modifications that will greatly facilitate detailed analysis of neural circuits and linking genetic identity, morphology, connectivity and function.

scholarly journals Distinct signatures of calcium activity in brain pericytes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaim Glück ◽  
Kim David Ferrari ◽  
Annika Keller ◽  
Aiman S. Saab ◽  
Jillian L. Stobart ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ex Vivo ◽  
Brain Slices ◽  
Extracellular Potassium ◽  
Calcium Dynamics ◽  
Calcium Signals ◽  
Calcium Activity ◽  
Two Photon ◽  
Brain Pericytes ◽  
Acute Increase

AbstractEven though pericytes have been implicated in various neurological disorders, little is known about their function and signaling pathways in the healthy brain. Here, we characterized cortical pericyte calcium dynamics using two-photon imaging of Pdgfrβ-CreERT2;GCaMP6s mice under anesthesia in vivo and in brain slices ex vivo. We found distinct differences between pericyte subtypes in vivo: Ensheathing pericytes exhibited smooth muscle cell-like calcium dynamics, while calcium signals in capillary pericytes were irregular, higher in frequency and occurred in cellular microdomains. In contrast to ensheathing pericytes, capillary pericytes retained their spontaneous calcium signals during prolonged anesthesia and in the absence of blood flow ex vivo. Chemogenetic activation of neurons in vivo and acute increase of extracellular potassium in brain slices strongly decreased calcium activity in capillary pericytes. We propose that neuronal activity-induced elevations in extracellular potassium suppress calcium activity in capillary pericytes, likely mediated by Kir2.2 and KATP channel activation.

scholarly journals Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Rhythmic Spinal Interneurons Measured With Two-Photon Calcium Imaging and Coherence Analysis

2010 ◽  
Vol 104 (6) ◽  
pp. 3323-3333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex C. Kwan ◽  
Shelby B. Dietz ◽  
Guisheng Zhong ◽  
Ronald M. Harris-Warrick ◽  
Watt W. Webb
Keyword(s):  
Calcium Imaging ◽  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Motor Output ◽  
Neuron Activity ◽  
Coherence Analysis ◽  
Fictive Locomotion ◽  
Cell Type ◽  
Spinal Interneurons ◽  
Two Photon

In rhythmic neural circuits, a neuron often fires action potentials with a constant phase to the rhythm, a timing relationship that can be functionally significant. To characterize these phase preferences in a large-scale, cell type–specific manner, we adapted multitaper coherence analysis for two-photon calcium imaging. Analysis of simulated data showed that coherence is a simple and robust measure of rhythmicity for calcium imaging data. When applied to the neonatal mouse hindlimb spinal locomotor network, the phase relationships between peak activity of >1,000 ventral spinal interneurons and motor output were characterized. Most interneurons showed rhythmic activity that was coherent and in phase with the ipsilateral motor output during fictive locomotion. The phase distributions of two genetically identified classes of interneurons were distinct from the ensemble population and from each other. There was no obvious spatial clustering of interneurons with similar phase preferences. Together, these results suggest that cell type, not neighboring neuron activity, is a better indicator of an interneuron's response during fictive locomotion. The ability to measure the phase preferences of many neurons with cell type and spatial information should be widely applicable for studying other rhythmic neural circuits.

scholarly journals Two-photon calcium imaging during fictive navigation in virtual environments

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Misha B. Ahrens ◽  
Kuo Hua Huang ◽  
Sujatha Narayan ◽  
Brett D. Mensh ◽  
Florian Engert
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Calcium Imaging ◽  
Two Photon

scholarly journals Functional Microarchitecture of the Mouse Dorsal Inferior Colliculus Revealed through In Vivo Two-Photon Calcium Imaging

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (31) ◽  
pp. 10927-10939 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Barnstedt ◽  
P. Keating ◽  
Y. Weissenberger ◽  
A. J. King ◽  
J. C. Dahmen
Keyword(s):  
Inferior Colliculus ◽  
Calcium Imaging ◽  
Two Photon

Two-Photon Processor and SeNeCA: a freely available software package to process data from two-photon calcium imaging at speeds down to several milliseconds per frame

2013 ◽  
Vol 110 (1) ◽  
pp. 243-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakub Tomek ◽  
Ondrej Novak ◽  
Josef Syka
Keyword(s):  
Calcium Imaging ◽  
Software Package ◽  
Motion Artifacts ◽  
Calcium Signal ◽  
Neural Cells ◽  
Neuronal System ◽  
Process Data ◽  
Entire Area ◽  
Two Photon

Two-Photon Processor (TPP) is a versatile, ready-to-use, and freely available software package in MATLAB to process data from in vivo two-photon calcium imaging. TPP includes routines to search for cell bodies in full-frame (Search for Neural Cells Accelerated; SeNeCA) and line-scan acquisition, routines for calcium signal calculations, filtering, spike-mining, and routines to construct parametric fields. Searching for somata in artificial in vivo data, our algorithm achieved better performance than human annotators. SeNeCA copes well with uneven background brightness and in-plane motion artifacts, the major problems in simple segmentation methods. In the fast mode, artificial in vivo images with a resolution of 256 × 256 pixels containing ∼100 neurons can be processed at a rate up to 175 frames per second (tested on Intel i7, 8 threads, magnetic hard disk drive). This speed of a segmentation algorithm could bring new possibilities into the field of in vivo optophysiology. With such a short latency (down to 5–6 ms on an ordinary personal computer) and using some contemporary optogenetic tools, it will allow experiments in which a control program can continuously evaluate the occurrence of a particular spatial pattern of activity (a possible correlate of memory or cognition) and subsequently inhibit/stimulate the entire area of the circuit or inhibit/stimulate a different part of the neuronal system. TPP will be freely available on our public web site. Similar all-in-one and freely available software has not yet been published.

scholarly journals On the correspondence of electrical and optical physiology in in vivo population-scale two-photon calcium imaging

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Ledochowitsch ◽  
Lawrence Huang ◽  
Ulf Knoblich ◽  
Michael Oliver ◽  
Jerome Lecoq ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Calcium Imaging ◽  
Biophysical Model ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Two Photon ◽  
Simultaneous Imaging ◽  
Fluorescence Measurements ◽  
Large Populations ◽  
Intractable Problem ◽  
Mouse Lines

AbstractMultiphoton calcium imaging is commonly used to monitor the spiking of large populations of neurons. Recovering action potentials from fluorescence necessitates calibration experiments, often with simultaneous imaging and cell-attached recording. Here we performed calibration for imaging conditions matching those of the Allen Brain Observatory. We developed a novel crowd-sourced, algorithmic approach to quality control. Our final data set was 50 recordings from 35 neurons in 3 mouse lines. Our calibration indicated that 3 or more spikes were required to produce consistent changes in fluorescence. Moreover, neither a simple linear model nor a more complex biophysical model accurately predicted fluorescence for small numbers of spikes (1-3). We observed increases in fluorescence corresponding to prolonged depolarizations, particularly in Emx1-IRES-Cre mouse line crosses. Our results indicate that deriving spike times from fluorescence measurements may be an intractable problem in some mouse lines.

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