Closed-Loop Systems for Large Scale Spatiotemporal Imaging and Actuation of Neural Activity in Freely Behaving Animals

用于自由行为动物的大规模时空成像和神经活动激活的闭环系统

• 批准号: 10675440
• 负责人: Daniel Aharoni
• 金额: $ 66.52万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-08-15 至 2026-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10675440
• 关键词: Acceleration; Adoption; Animal Experiments; Animals; Area; Automobile Driving; Behavior; Behavior Control; Behavioral; Brain; Cells; Communities; Complex; Data; Detection; Development; Devices; Educational workshop; Equipment; Event; Feedback; Foundations; Generations; Goals; Grain; Head; Hippocampus; Image; Investigation; Knowledge; Learning; Light; Lighting; Link; Measures; Memory; Methodology; Microscope; Mus; Neurons; Neurophysiology - biologic function; Neurosciences; Neurosciences Research; Nucleus Accumbens; Operative Surgical Procedures; Optics; Pattern; Persons; Process; Protocols documentation; Rattus; Reading; Research Personnel; Role; Sampling; Site; Slice; Social Interaction; Source Code; Structure; System; Techniques; Technology; Testing; Time; Training; Work; Writing; awake; design; design,build,test; detection platform; experience; experimental study; image processing; improved; in vivo evaluation; innovation; neural; neural circuit; neural network; neurobehavioral; neuroimaging; novel; online resource; open source; open source tool; process optimization; prototype; spatiotemporal; tool; wiki

ABSTRACT A major challenge in neuroscience is to uncover how defined neural circuits in the brain encode, store, modify, and retrieve information. Adding to this challenge is the fact that neural function does not operate in isolation but rather within living, behaving animals. Great technological advances over the past decades have allowed researchers to begin to optically measure and modulate neural activity but these approaches are often limited to head-fix animals when studying neural function at spatial and temporal scales relevant to internal neural circuit dynamics. While a great deal of scientific and technological progress has been made, there is still much to learn concerning complex neural function, especially within the context of natural behavior. This knowledge gap, at least in part, is due to a lack of accessible tools for simultaneously modulating and observing large-scale neural circuits with single-cell precision in freely behaving animals. This project will fill this gap by developing open-source, head-mounted miniature microscopes with spatiotemporal illumination capabilities for both patterned photo-stimulation and improved neural imaging in freely behaving animals. We will develop a modular control and acquisition platform for native integration of neural and behavioral equipment to facilitate neural-behavioral experiments. Finally, this platform will be driven by a novel, automated, closed-loop processing framework for detecting, decoding, and manipulating neural and behavioral dynamics in real-time. The goal of this platform is to 1) significantly extend and improve upon current freely behaving neural imaging and modulation techniques and 2) provide an integrated framework for observing, controlling, and manipulating neural dynamics within the context of behavior. This approach has the potential to simultaneously “read” from and “write” into, potentially, any area of the brain, enabling fine-grained investigation of the causal role between neural activity and behavior. Our development will be guided by concurrent benchtop and in vivo testing at every stage of the development and optimization process. To maximize the impact of our efforts, all tools and technologies developed for this proposal will be open-source and shared widely with the scientific community through online resources and technical workshops.

抽象的 神经科学的一个主要挑战是发现大脑编码，存储，修改和检索信息中的神经科学的定义如何。加上这一挑战的是，神经功能不是孤立地运作，而是在生活中，行为动物。在过去的几十年中，巨大的技术进步使研究人员能够开始光学测量和调节神经元活动，但是在研究与内部神经元电路动力学相关的空间和临时尺度时，这些方法通常仅限于头部固定动物。尽管已经取得了很大的科学和技术进步，但关于复杂的神经元功能，尤其是在自然行为的背景下，仍然需要学习很多东西。这种知识差距至少部分是由于缺乏可访问的工具，可以简单地调节和观察自由行使动物的单细胞精度的大规模神经元电路。动物。该项目将通过开发带有时空照明功能的开源，头部安装的微型显微镜来填补这一空白，以构成图案化的照片刺激和改善自由表现的动物的神经影像。我们将开发一个模块化控制和获取平台，用于神经元和行为设备的天然整合，以促进神经元行为实验。最后，该平台将由一个新颖的，自动化的闭环驱动，该平台的目标是1）对当前自由行为的神经成像和调制技术进行显着扩展和改进，并且2）为观察，控制和操纵行为上下文中的神经动态提供了一个集成的框架。这种方法有可能简单地从大脑的任何区域中“读取”并“写入”，从而使神经活动和行为之间的因果作用进行精细的投资。在开发和优化过程的每个阶段，我们的开发将以同时的台式和体内测试为指导。为了最大程度地利用我们的努力影响，为该建议开发的所有工具和技术都将是开源的，并通过在线资源和技术研讨会与科学界广泛分享。