Optogenetic fMRI in the mouse hippocampus: Hemodynamic response to brief glutamatergic stimuli.

ABSTRACT: The combination of optogenetics with functional magnetic resonance imaging is a promising tool to study the causal relationship between specific neuronal populations and global brain activity. We employed this technique to study the brain response to recruitment of glutamatergic neurons in the mouse hippocampus. The light-sensitive protein channelrhodopsin-2 was expressed in α-CamKII-positive glutamatergic neurons in the left hippocampus (N = 10). Functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed during local laser stimulation, with stimulus duration of 1 second. The hemodynamic response to these stimuli was analyzed on a whole-brain level. In a secondary analysis, we examined the impact of the stimulation locus on the dorso-ventral axis within the hippocampal formation. The hemodynamic

SUBMITTER: Lebhardt P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4794094 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature