Whole brain dynamics during optogenetic self-stimulation of the medial prefrontal cortex in mice.

ABSTRACT: Intracranial self-stimulation, in which an animal performs an operant response to receive regional brain electrical stimulation, is a widely used procedure to study motivated behavior. While local neuronal activity has long been measured immediately before or after the operant, imaging the whole brain in real-time remains a challenge. Herein we report a method that permits functional MRI (fMRI) of brain dynamics while mice are cued to perform an operant task: licking a spout to receive optogenetic stimulation to the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) during a cue ON, but not cue OFF. Licking during cue ON results in activation of a widely distributed network consistent with underlying MPFC projections, while licking during cue OFF (without optogenetic stimulation) leads to negative fMRI signa

SUBMITTER: Cover CG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7809041 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature