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Zhou ZC, Gordon-Fennell A, Piantadosi SC, Ji N, Smith SL, Bruchas MR, Stuber GD. Deep-brain optical recording of neural dynamics during behavior. Neuron 2023; 111:3716-3738. [PMID: 37804833 PMCID: PMC10843303 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.09.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2023] [Revised: 08/24/2023] [Accepted: 09/06/2023] [Indexed: 10/09/2023]
Abstract
In vivo fluorescence recording techniques have produced landmark discoveries in neuroscience, providing insight into how single cell and circuit-level computations mediate sensory processing and generate complex behaviors. While much attention has been given to recording from cortical brain regions, deep-brain fluorescence recording is more complex because it requires additional measures to gain optical access to harder to reach brain nuclei. Here we discuss detailed considerations and tradeoffs regarding deep-brain fluorescence recording techniques and provide a comprehensive guide for all major steps involved, from project planning to data analysis. The goal is to impart guidance for new and experienced investigators seeking to use in vivo deep fluorescence optical recordings in awake, behaving rodent models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhe Charles Zhou
- Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Center for Neurobiology of Addiction, Pain, and Emotion, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Adam Gordon-Fennell
- Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Center for Neurobiology of Addiction, Pain, and Emotion, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Sean C Piantadosi
- Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Center for Neurobiology of Addiction, Pain, and Emotion, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Na Ji
- Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Spencer LaVere Smith
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | - Michael R Bruchas
- Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Center for Neurobiology of Addiction, Pain, and Emotion, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Department of Pharmacology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
| | - Garret D Stuber
- Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Center for Neurobiology of Addiction, Pain, and Emotion, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; Department of Pharmacology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
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Lu K, Wong KT, Zhou LN, Shi YT, Yang CJ, Liu RC. Instinct to insight: Neural correlates of ethological strategy learning. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.09.11.557240. [PMID: 37745495 PMCID: PMC10515821 DOI: 10.1101/2023.09.11.557240] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/26/2023]
Abstract
In ethological behaviors like parenting, animals innately follow stereotyped patterns of choices to decide between uncertain outcomes but can learn to modify their strategies to incorporate new information. For example, female mice in a T-maze instinctively use spatial-memory to search for pups where they last found them but can learn more efficient strategies employing pup-associated acoustic cues. We uncovered neural correlates for transitioning between these innate and learned strategies. Auditory cortex (ACx) was required during learning. ACx firing at the nest increased with learning and correlated with subsequent search speed but not outcome. Surprisingly, ACx suppression rather than facilitation during search was more prognostic of correct sound-cued outcomes - even before adopting a sound-cued strategy. Meanwhile medial prefrontal cortex encoded the last pup location, but this decayed as the spatial-memory strategy declined. Our results suggest a neural competition between a weakening spatial-memory and strengthening sound-cued neural representation to mediate strategy switches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kai Lu
- Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
| | - Kelvin T. Wong
- Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
| | - Lin N. Zhou
- Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
| | - Yike T. Shi
- Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
| | | | - Robert C. Liu
- Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
- Center for Translational Social Neuroscience, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
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Stephenson S, Liu A, Blackwell AA, Britten RA. Multiple decrements in switch task performance in female rats exposed to space radiation. Behav Brain Res 2023; 449:114465. [PMID: 37142163 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2023.114465] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2023] [Revised: 04/14/2023] [Accepted: 05/01/2023] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
Astronauts on the Artemis missions to the Moon and Mars will be exposed to unavoidable Galactic Cosmic Radiation (GCR). Studies using male rats suggest that GCR exposure impairs several processes required for cognitive flexibility performance, including attention and task switching. Currently no comparable studies have been conducted with female rats. Given that both males and females will travel into deep space, this study determined whether simulated GCR (GCRsim) exposure impairs task switching performance in female rats. Female Wistar rats exposed to 10cGy GCRsim (n = 12) and shams (n=14) were trained to perform a touchscreen-based switch task that mimics a switch task used to evaluate pilots' response times. In comparison to sham rats, three-fold more GCRsim-exposed rats failed to complete the stimulus response stage of training, a high cognitive loading task. In the switch task, 50% of the GCRsim-exposed rats failed to consistently transition between the repeated and switch blocks of stimuli, which they completed during lower cognitive loading training stages. The GCRsim-exposed rats that completed the switch task only performed at 65% of the accuracy of shams. Female rats exposed to GCRsim thus exhibit multiple decrements in the switch task under high, but not low, cognitive loading conditions. While the operational significance of this performance decrement is unknown, if GCRSim exposure was to induce similar effects in astronauts, our data suggests there may be a reduced ability to execute task switching under high cognitive loading situations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samuel Stephenson
- School of Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia 23507 USA
| | - Aiyi Liu
- EVMS Radiation Oncology, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia 23507 USA
| | - Ashley A Blackwell
- EVMS Radiation Oncology, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia 23507 USA; Center for Integrative Neuroscience and Inflammatory Diseases, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia 23507 USA
| | - Richard A Britten
- EVMS Radiation Oncology, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia 23507 USA; Center for Integrative Neuroscience and Inflammatory Diseases, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia 23507 USA.
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Morgan AA, Alves ND, Stevens GS, Yeasmin TT, Mackay A, Power S, Sargin D, Hanna C, Adib AL, Ziolkowski-Blake A, Lambe EK, Ansorge MS. Medial Prefrontal Cortex Serotonin Input Regulates Cognitive Flexibility in Mice. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.03.30.534775. [PMID: 37034804 PMCID: PMC10081203 DOI: 10.1101/2023.03.30.534775] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) regulates cognitive flexibility and emotional behavior. Neurons that release serotonin project to the mPFC, and serotonergic drugs influence emotion and cognition. Yet, the specific roles of endogenous serotonin release in the mPFC on neurophysiology and behavior are unknown. We show that axonal serotonin release in the mPFC directly inhibits the major mPFC output neurons. In serotonergic neurons projecting from the dorsal raphe to the mPFC, we find endogenous activity signatures pre-reward retrieval and at reward retrieval during a cognitive flexibility task. In vivo optogenetic activation of this pathway during pre-reward retrieval selectively improved extradimensional rule shift performance while inhibition impaired it, demonstrating sufficiency and necessity for mPFC serotonin release in cognitive flexibility. Locomotor activity and anxiety-like behavior were not affected by either optogenetic manipulation. Collectively, our data reveal a powerful and specific modulatory role of endogenous serotonin release from dorsal raphe-to-mPFC projecting neurons in cognitive flexibility.
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Patrono E, Hrůzova K, Svoboda J, Stuchlík A. The role of optogenetic stimulations of parvalbumin-positive interneurons in the prefrontal cortex and the ventral hippocampus on an acute MK-801 model of schizophrenia-like cognitive inflexibility. Schizophr Res 2023; 252:198-205. [PMID: 36657364 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2022.12.047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2022] [Revised: 12/19/2022] [Accepted: 12/30/2022] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
Schizophrenia research has increased in recent decades and focused more on its neural basis. Decision-making and cognitive flexibility are the main cognitive functions that are impaired and considered schizophrenia endophenotypes. Cognitive impairment was recently connected with altered functions of N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDAR) glutamatergic receptors, which increased cortical activity. Selective NMDAR antagonists, such as MK-801, have been used to model cognitive inflexibility in schizophrenia. Decreased GABAergic inhibitory activity has been shown elsewhere with enhanced cortical activity. This imbalance in the excitatory/inhibitory may reduce the entrainment of prefrontal gamma and hippocampal theta rhythms and result in gamma/theta band de-synchronization. The current study established an acute MK-801 administration model of schizophrenia-like cognitive inflexibility in rats and used the attentional set-shifting task in which rats learned to switch/reverse the relevant rule. During the task, we used in vivo optogenetic stimulations of parvalbumin-positive interneurons at specific light pulses in the prefrontal cortex and ventral hippocampus. The first experiments showed that acute dizocilpine in rats produced schizophrenia-like cognitive inflexibility. The second set of experiments demonstrated that specific optogenetic stimulation at specific frequencies of parvalbumin-positive interneurons in the prefrontal cortex and ventral hippocampus rescued the cognitive flexibility rats that received acute MK-801. These findings advance our knowledge of the pivotal role of parvalbumin interneurons in schizophrenia-like cognitive impairment and may guide further research on this severe psychiatric disorder.
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Affiliation(s)
- Enrico Patrono
- Institute of Physiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Videnska, 1830, 142 20 Prague 4, Czech Republic.
| | - Karolina Hrůzova
- Institute of Physiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Videnska, 1830, 142 20 Prague 4, Czech Republic; Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Ruská 87, 100 00, Prague 10, Czech Republic
| | - Jan Svoboda
- Institute of Physiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Videnska, 1830, 142 20 Prague 4, Czech Republic
| | - Aleš Stuchlík
- Institute of Physiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Videnska, 1830, 142 20 Prague 4, Czech Republic
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Spellman T, Svei M, Kaminsky J, Manzano-Nieves G, Liston C. Prefrontal deep projection neurons enable cognitive flexibility via persistent feedback monitoring. Cell 2021; 184:2750-2766.e17. [PMID: 33861951 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.03.047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2020] [Revised: 02/16/2021] [Accepted: 03/23/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Cognitive flexibility, the ability to alter strategy according to changing stimulus-response-reward relationships, is critical for updating learned behavior. Attentional set-shifting, a test of cognitive flexibility, depends on the activity of prefrontal cortex (PFC). It remains unclear, however, what role PFC neurons play to support set-shifting. Using optogenetics and two-photon calcium imaging, we demonstrate that medial PFC activity does not bias sensorimotor responses during set-shifting, but rather enables set-shifting by encoding trial feedback information, a role it has been known to play in other contexts. Unexpectedly, the functional properties of PFC cells did not vary with their efferent projection targets. Instead, representations of trial feedback formed a topological gradient, with cells more strongly selective for feedback information located further from the pial surface, where afferent input from the anterior cingulate cortex was denser. These findings identify a critical role for deep PFC projection neurons in enabling set-shifting through behavioral feedback monitoring.
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Affiliation(s)
- Timothy Spellman
- Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10021, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10021, USA.
| | - Malka Svei
- Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10021, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10021, USA
| | - Jesse Kaminsky
- Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10021, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10021, USA
| | - Gabriela Manzano-Nieves
- Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10021, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10021, USA
| | - Conor Liston
- Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10021, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10021, USA.
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