In vivo tracing of pathways and spatio-temporal activity patterns in rat visual cortex using voltage sensitive dyes

1993 ◽  
Vol 94 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. S. Orbach ◽  
D. C. Van Essen
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paloma P Maldonado ◽  
Alvaro Nuno-Perez ◽  
Jan Kirchner ◽  
Elizabeth Hammock ◽  
Julijana Gjorgjieva ◽  
...  

SummarySpontaneous network activity shapes emerging neuronal circuits during early brain development, however how neuromodulation influences this activity is not fully understood. Here, we report that the neuromodulator oxytocin powerfully shapes spontaneous activity patterns. In vivo, oxytocin strongly decreased the frequency and pairwise correlations of spontaneous activity events in visual cortex (V1), but not in somatosensory cortex (S1). This differential effect was a consequence of oxytocin only increasing inhibition in V1 and increasing both inhibition and excitation in S1. The increase in inhibition was mediated by the depolarization and increase in excitability of somatostatin+ (SST) interneurons specifically. Accordingly, silencing SST+ neurons pharmacogenetically fully blocked oxytocin’s effect on inhibition in vitro as well its effect on spontaneous activity patterns in vivo. Thus, oxytocin decreases the excitatory/inhibitory ratio and modulates specific features of V1 spontaneous activity patterns that are crucial for refining developing synaptic connections and sensory processing later in life.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Whitney ◽  
Jeremy T. Chang ◽  
David Fitzpatrick

SummaryAcross sensory areas, neural microcircuits consolidate diverse streams of information into unified, representations of the external world. In the carnivore visual cortex, where eye-specific inputs converge, it has been posited that a single, shared columnar representation of orientation develops independent of sensory experience. In this study, in vivo calcium imaging with columnar and cellular resolution reveals a strikingly different developmental process in ferret visual cortex, starting with an early developmental period in which contralateral, ipsilateral or binocular stimulation each yield distinct well-organized representations of orientation that are misaligned at the columnar and cellular scale. Experience-dependent processes drive the reorganization of these three representations towards a single binocularly-aligned representation resembling the early binocular representation through concerted shifts in the preferred orientation of individual neurons. Thus, contrary to previous findings, a unified binocular representation of orientation results from an experience-dependent process that aligns the activity patterns of three distinct neural representations.


eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina E Wosniack ◽  
Jan H Kirchner ◽  
Ling-Ya Chao ◽  
Nawal Zabouri ◽  
Christian Lohmann ◽  
...  

Spontaneous activity drives the establishment of appropriate connectivity in different circuits during brain development. In the mouse primary visual cortex, two distinct patterns of spontaneous activity occur before vision onset: local low-synchronicity events originating in the retina and global high-synchronicity events originating in the cortex. We sought to determine the contribution of these activity patterns to jointly organize network connectivity through different activity-dependent plasticity rules. We postulated that local events shape cortical input selectivity and topography, while global events homeostatically regulate connection strength. However, to generate robust selectivity, we found that global events should adapt their amplitude to the history of preceding cortical activation. We confirmed this prediction by analyzing in vivo spontaneous cortical activity. The predicted adaptation leads to the sparsification of spontaneous activity on a slower timescale during development, demonstrating the remarkable capacity of the developing sensory cortex to acquire sensitivity to visual inputs after eye-opening.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina E. Wosniack ◽  
Jan H. Kirchner ◽  
Ling-Ya Chao ◽  
Nawal Zabouri ◽  
Christian Lohmann ◽  
...  

Spontaneous activity drives the establishment of appropriate connectivity in different circuits during brain development. In the mouse primary visual cortex, two distinct patterns of spontaneous activity occur before vision onset: local low-synchronicity events originating in the retina, and global high-synchronicity events originating in the cortex. We sought to determine the contribution of these activity patterns to jointly organize network connectivity through different activity-dependent plasticity rules. We found that local events shape cortical input selectivity and topography, while global events have a homeostatic role regulating connection strength. To generate robust selectivity, we predicted that global events should adapt their amplitude to the history of preceding cortical activation, and confirmed by analyzing in vivo spontaneous cortical activity. This adaptation led to the sparsification of spontaneous activity on a slower timescale during development, demonstrating the remarkable capacity of the developing sensory cortex to acquire sensitivity to visual inputs after eye-opening.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Rhim ◽  
G. Coello-Reyes ◽  
I. Nauhaus

AbstractVisual input to primary visual cortex (V1) depends on highly adaptive filtering in the retina. In turn, isolation of V1 computations requires experimental control of retinal adaptation to infer its spatio-temporal-chromatic output. Here, we measure the balance of input to mouse V1, in the anesthetized setup, from the three main photoreceptor opsins—M-opsin, S-opsin, and rhodopsin—as a function of two stimulus dimensions. The first dimension is the level of light adaptation within the mesopic range, which governs the balance of rod and cone inputs to cortex. The second stimulus dimension is retinotopic position, which governs the balance of S- and M-cone opsin input due to the opsin expression gradient in the retina. The fitted model predicts opsin input under arbitrary lighting environments, which provides a much-needed handle on in-vivo studies of the mouse visual system. We use it here to reveal that V1 is rod-mediated in common laboratory settings yet cone-mediated in natural daylight. Next, we compare functional properties of V1 under rod and cone-mediated inputs. The results show that cone-mediated V1 responds to 2.5-fold higher temporal frequencies than rod-mediated V1. Furthermore, cone-mediated V1 has smaller receptive fields, yet similar spatial frequency tuning. V1 responses in rod-deficient (Gnat1−/−) mice confirm that the effects are due to differences in photoreceptor opsin contribution.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ting Fu ◽  
Isabelle Arnoux ◽  
Jan Döring ◽  
Hirofumi Watari ◽  
Ignas Stasevicius ◽  
...  

AbstractTwo-photon (2-P) all-optical approaches combine in vivo 2-P calcium imaging and 2-P optogenetic modulations and have the potential to build a framework for network-based therapies, e.g. for rebalancing maladaptive activity patterns in preclinical models of neurological disorders. Here, our goal was to tailor these approaches for this purpose: Firstly, we combined in vivo juxtacellular recordings and GCaMP6f-based 2-P calcium imaging in layer II/III of mouse visual cortex to tune our detection algorithm towards a 100 % specific identification of AP-related calcium transients. False-positive-free detection was achieved at a sensitivity of approximately 73 %. To further increase specificity, secondly, we minimized photostimulation artifacts as a potential source for false-positives by using extended-wavelength-spectrum laser sources for optogenetic stimulation of the excitatory opsin C1V1. We achieved artifact-free all-optical experiments performing photostimulations at 1100 nm or higher and simultaneous calcium imaging at 920 nm in mouse visual cortex in vivo. Thirdly, we determined the spectral range for maximizing efficacy of optogenetic control by performing 2-P photostimulations of individual neurons with wavelengths up to 1300 nm. The rate of evoked transients in GCaMP6f/C1V1-co-expressing cortical neurons peaked already at 1100 nm. By refining spike detection and defining 1100 nm as the optimal wavelength for artifact-free and effective stimulations of C1V1 in GCaMP-based all-optical interrogations, we increased the translational value of these approaches, e.g. for the use in preclinical applications of network-based therapies.One Sentence SummaryWe maximize translational relevance of 2-P all-optical physiology by increasing specificity, minimizing artifacts and optimizing stimulation efficacy.


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