Fluorescence-based monitoring of in vivo neural activity using a circuit-tracing pseudorabies virus.

ABSTRACT: The study of coordinated activity in neuronal circuits has been challenging without a method to simultaneously report activity and connectivity. Here we present the first use of pseudorabies virus (PRV), which spreads through synaptically connected neurons, to express a fluorescent calcium indicator protein and monitor neuronal activity in a living animal. Fluorescence signals were proportional to action potential number and could reliably detect single action potentials in vitro. With two-photon imaging in vivo, we observed both spontaneous and stimulated activity in neurons of infected murine peripheral autonomic submandibular ganglia (SMG). We optically recorded the SMG response in the salivary circuit to direct electrical stimulation of the presynaptic axons and to physiologically rele

SUBMITTER: Granstedt AE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2735035 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature