Imaging input and output dynamics of neocortical networks in vivo: exciting times ahead

Increased Reliability of Visually-Evoked Activity in Area V1 of the MECP2-Duplication Mouse Model of Autism

Atypical sensory processing is now thought to be a core feature of the autism spectrum. Influential theories have proposed that both increased and decreased neural response reliability within sensory systems could underlie altered sensory processing in autism. Here, we report evidence for abnormally increased reliability of visual-evoked responses in layer 2/3 neurons of adult male and female primary visual cortex in the MECP2-duplication syndrome animal model of autism. Increased response reliability was due in part to decreased response amplitude, decreased fluctuations in endogenous activity, and an abnormal decoupling of visual-evoked activity from endogenous activity. Similar to what was observed neuronally, the optokinetic reflex occurred more reliably at low contrasts in mutant mice compared with controls. Retinal responses did not explain our observations. These data suggest that the circuit mechanisms for combining sensory-evoked and endogenous signal and noise processes may be altered in this form of syndromic autism.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Atypical sensory processing is now thought to be a core feature of the autism spectrum. Influential theories have proposed that both increased and decreased neural response reliability within sensory systems could underlie altered sensory processing in autism. Here, we report evidence for abnormally increased reliability of visual-evoked responses in primary visual cortex of the animal model for MECP2-duplication syndrome, a high-penetrance single-gene cause of autism. Visual-evoked activity was abnormally decoupled from endogenous activity in mutant mice, suggesting in line with the influential "hypo-priors" theory of autism that sensory priors embedded in endogenous activity may have less influence on perception in autism.

Fast noninvasive functional diffuse optical tomography for brain imaging

Advances in epilepsy studies have shown that specific changes in hemodynamics precede and accompany seizure onset and propagation. However, it has been challenging to noninvasively detect these changes in real time and in humans, due to the lack of fast functional neuroimaging tools. In this study, we present a functional diffuse optical tomography (DOT) method with the guidance of an anatomical human head atlas for 3-dimensionally mapping the brain in real time. Central to our DOT system is a human head interface coupled with a technique that can incorporate topological information of the brain surface into the DOT image reconstruction. The performance of the DOT system was tested by imaging motor tasks-involved brain activities on N = 6 subjects (3 epilepsy patients and 3 healthy controls). We observed diffuse areas of activations from the reconstructed [HbT] images of patients, relative to more focal activations for healthy subjects. Moreover, significant pretask hemodynamic activations were also seen in the motor cortex of patients, which indicated abnormal activities persistent in the brain of an epilepsy patient. This work demonstrates that fast functional DOT is a valuable tool for noninvasive 3-dimensional mapping of brain hemodynamics.

Voltage imaging to understand connections and functions of neuronal circuits

Understanding of the cellular mechanisms underlying brain functions such as cognition and emotions requires monitoring of membrane voltage at the cellular, circuit, and system levels. Seminal voltage-sensitive dye and calcium-sensitive dye imaging studies have demonstrated parallel detection of electrical activity across populations of interconnected neurons in a variety of preparations. A game-changing advance made in recent years has been the conceptualization and development of optogenetic tools, including genetically encoded indicators of voltage (GEVIs) or calcium (GECIs) and genetically encoded light-gated ion channels (actuators, e.g., channelrhodopsin2). Compared with low-molecular-weight calcium and voltage indicators (dyes), the optogenetic imaging approaches are 1) cell type specific, 2) less invasive, 3) able to relate activity and anatomy, and 4) facilitate long-term recordings of individual cells' activities over weeks, thereby allowing direct monitoring of the emergence of learned behaviors and underlying circuit mechanisms. We highlight the potential of novel approaches based on GEVIs and compare those to calcium imaging approaches. We also discuss how novel approaches based on GEVIs (and GECIs) coupled with genetically encoded actuators will promote progress in our knowledge of brain circuits and systems.

Towards real-time detection of seizures in awake rats with GPU-accelerated diffuse optical tomography

BACKGROUND

Advancement in clinically relevant studies like seizure interruption using functional neuro imaging tools has shown that specific changes in hemodynamics precede and accompany seizure onset and propagation. However, preclinical seizure experiments need to be conducted in awake animals with images reconstructed and displayed in real-time.

METHODS

This article describes an approach that can be utilized to tackle these challenges. A subject specific head interface and restraining method was designed to allow for DOT to imaging of hemodynamic changes in unanesthetized rats during evoked acute seizures. Using CUDA programming model, the finite-element based nonlinear iterative algorithm for image reconstruction was parallelized.

RESULTS

Early hemodynamic changes were monitored in real time and observed tens of seconds prior to seizure onset. Utilizing the massive parallelization offered by graphic processing units (GPU), DOT was extended to online image reconstruction within 1s.

COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS

Pre-seizure state related hemodynamic changes were detected in awake rats. 3D monitoring of hemodynamic changes was performed in real time with our parallelized image reconstruction procedure.

CONCLUSION

Diffuse optical tomography (DOT) is a promising neuroimaging tool for the investigation of seizures in awake animals.

Pre-seizure state identified by diffuse optical tomography

In epilepsy it has been challenging to detect early changes in brain activity that occurs prior to seizure onset and to map their origin and evolution for possible intervention. Here we demonstrate using a rat model of generalized epilepsy that diffuse optical tomography (DOT) provides a unique functional neuroimaging modality for noninvasively and continuously tracking such brain activities with high spatiotemporal resolution. We detected early hemodynamic responses with heterogeneous patterns, along with intracranial electroencephalogram gamma power changes, several minutes preceding the electroencephalographic seizure onset, supporting the presence of a "pre-seizure" state. We also observed the decoupling between local hemodynamic and neural activities. We found widespread hemodynamic changes evolving from local regions of the bilateral cortex and thalamus to the entire brain, indicating that the onset of generalized seizures may originate locally rather than diffusely. Together, these findings suggest DOT represents a powerful tool for mapping early seizure onset and propagation pathways.

Collinear stimuli induce local and cross-areal coherence in the visual cortex of behaving monkeys

Background

Collinear patterns of local visual stimuli are used to study contextual effects in the visual system. Previous studies have shown that proximal collinear flankers, unlike orthogonal, can enhance the detection of a low contrast central element. However, the direct neural interactions between cortical populations processing the individual flanker elements and the central element are largely unknown.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Using voltage-sensitive dye imaging (VSDI) we imaged neural population responses in V1 and V2 areas in fixating monkeys while they were presented with collinear or orthogonal arrays of Gabor patches. We then studied the spatio-temporal interactions between neuronal populations processing individual Gabor patches in the two conditions. Time-frequency analysis of the stimulus-evoked VSDI signal showed power increase mainly in low frequencies, i.e., the alpha band (α; 7–14 Hz). Power in the α-band was more discriminative at a single trial level than other neuronal population measures. Importantly, the collinear condition showed an increased intra-areal (V1-V1 and V2-V2) and inter-areal (V1-V2) α-coherence with shorter latencies than the orthogonal condition, both before and after the removal of the stimulus contribution. α-coherence appeared between discrete neural populations processing the individual Gabor patches: the central element and the flankers.

Conclusions/Significance

Our findings suggest that collinear effects are mediated by synchronization in a distributed network of proximal and distant neuronal populations within and across V1 and V2.

Dopaminergic modulation of striatal neurons, circuits, and assemblies

In recent years, there has been a great deal of progress toward understanding the role of the striatum and dopamine in action selection. The advent of new animal models and the development of optical techniques for imaging and stimulating select neuronal populations have provided the means by which identified synapses, cells, and circuits can be reliably studied. This review attempts to summarize some of the key advances in this broad area, focusing on dopaminergic modulation of intrinsic excitability and synaptic plasticity in canonical microcircuits in the striatum as well as recent work suggesting that there are neuronal assemblies within the striatum devoted to particular types of computation and possibly action selection.

Principles of neural ensemble physiology underlying the operation of brain-machine interfaces

Research on brain-machine interfaces has been ongoing for at least a decade. During this period, simultaneous recordings of the extracellular electrical activity of hundreds of individual neurons have been used for direct, real-time control of various artificial devices. Brain-machine interfaces have also added greatly to our knowledge of the fundamental physiological principles governing the operation of large neural ensembles. Further understanding of these principles is likely to have a key role in the future development of neuroprosthetics for restoring mobility in severely paralysed patients.

Techniques for extracting single-trial activity patterns from large-scale neural recordings

Large, chronically implanted arrays of microelectrodes are an increasingly common tool for recording from primate cortex and can provide extracellular recordings from many (order of 100) neurons. While the desire for cortically based motor prostheses has helped drive their development, such arrays also offer great potential to advance basic neuroscience research. Here we discuss the utility of array recording for the study of neural dynamics. Neural activity often has dynamics beyond that driven directly by the stimulus. While governed by those dynamics, neural responses may nevertheless unfold differently for nominally identical trials, rendering many traditional analysis methods ineffective. We review recent studies - some employing simultaneous recording, some not - indicating that such variability is indeed present both during movement generation and during the preceding premotor computations. In such cases, large-scale simultaneous recordings have the potential to provide an unprecedented view of neural dynamics at the level of single trials. However, this enterprise will depend not only on techniques for simultaneous recording but also on the use and further development of analysis techniques that can appropriately reduce the dimensionality of the data, and allow visualization of single-trial neural behavior.

A future for systems and computational neuroscience in France?

This special issue of the Journal of Physiology, Paris, is an outcome of NeuroComp'06, the first French conference in Computational Neuroscience. The preparation for this conference, held at Pont-à-Mousson in October 2006, was accompanied by a survey which has resulted in an up-to-date inventory of human resources and labs in France concerned with this emerging new field of research (see team directory in http://neurocomp.risc.cnrs.fr/). This thematic JPP issue gathers some of the key scientific presentations made on the occasion of this first interdisciplinary meeting, which should soon become recognized as a yearly national conference representative of a new scientific community. The present introductory paper presents the general scientific context of the conference and reviews some of the historical and conceptual foundations of Systems and Computational Neuroscience in France.