BRAIN project (Plenz): Readout and Control of Spatiotemporal Neuronal Codes of Behavior

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During the second year of this grant we continued to make substantial progress in optimizing our required neuroscientific set-ups such as 2-photon imaging (2PI) in combination with spatial light modulation. Advances in technical development specific to the Plenz lab were the following: After upgradeding our current imaging laser to include wavelengths >1000 nm, we established deep cortical recording with red-shifted GECIs such as jrGecko. Furthermore, we are now able to synchronize our 2PI system with optical stimulation, pupillometry and locomotion measures for routine recordings. With respect to our Spatial Light Modulation (SLM)/optical stimulation, we optimized injection and expression procedures for red-shifted opsins (Chrimson) and demonstrated functional opsin expression in vivo in the awake mouse using wide-field stimulation of opsins with simultaneous 2PI. We further optimized our software control of the SLM and upgraded our SLM to a model that can control lasers with higher power at higher spatial resolution. Finally, we replaced our high-repetition 5 W stimulation with a low-repetition, high power dual laser to be able to stimulation individual nerve cells with millisecond precision important to control critical dynamics in the brain of awake animals.