Long-range Channelrhodopsin-assisted Circuit Mapping of Inferior Colliculus Neurons with Blue and Red-shifted Channelrhodopsins.

ABSTRACT: When investigating neural circuits, a standard limitation of the in vitro patch clamp approach is that axons from multiple sources are often intermixed, making it difficult to isolate inputs from individual sources with electrical stimulation. However, by using channelrhodopsin assisted circuit mapping (CRACM), this limitation can now be overcome. Here, we report a method to use CRACM to map ascending inputs from lower auditory brainstem nuclei and commissural inputs to an identified class of neurons in the inferior colliculus (IC), the midbrain nucleus of the auditory system. In the IC, local, commissural, ascending, and descending axons are heavily intertwined and therefore indistinguishable with electrical stimulation. By injecting a viral construct to drive expression of a channelrhodo

SUBMITTER: Goyer D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7118657 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature