Webinar Recording:
Combining optogenetics and large-scale electrophysiology recording
Summary
Over the past two decades, in vivo high-density extracellular recordings and optogenetics have both seen a massive increased use in neuroscience. Both powerful techniques in their own right, the recent push to combine them in novel experimental designs promises to open new avenues in our understanding of the brain.
In this webinar, we will present the combination of photostimulation using tapered fibers with high density recordings using Neuropixel probes by combining these to a novel type of optotrode. Leveraging the targeted stimulation that tapered fibers allow, it was possible to link spike patterns recorded from isolated units to genetically defined cell classes (“optotagging”). Applying this approach to Medial Septum, we were able to identify the neurons necessary for the initiation and maintenance of running. We also identified a novel, persistent firing phenotype in the subcortical Medial Septum Diagonal Band of Broca complex.
This technique opens doors to new applications in a wide range of neuroscience experiments, including recording during spatially targeted optogenetic manipulation spanning multiple, defined brain areas. Finally, the use of such optotrodes is not limited to photostimulation but can also be used for simultaneous fiber photometry and high-density neuronal recordings.
Presenters
- Marco Pisanello has a Master’s Degree in Telecommunication Engineering. After that he joined the Center for Biomolecular Nanotechnologies of the Instituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) as a PhD student in 2014, continuing there later as a postdoc in 2017. During his time at IIT he worked on the development and implementation of the tapered fiber technology as optogenetic probes. In 2020, Marco joined OptogeniX that has commercialized the tapered fibers where he is currently the CTO.
- Endre Levente Marosi is a final year PhD student in the “Cognition and Emotion” research group lead by Dr. Sanja Bauer Mikulovic at the Leibniz Institute for Neuroscience in Magdeburg (Germany). Prior to joining the LIN, he studied Physiology and Neuroscience at Eötvös Loránd University (Hungary), where his focus was on synaptic and circuit physiology in the hippocampal network. At the LIN he has been establishing combined optical and electrical interrogation of in vivo circuits.
What is covered
- Introduction to the use of tapered fibers for in vivo optogenetics
- Making and using Neuropixel-based optotrodes
- Example experiments showing to power of the method
- Overcoming challenges when combining optical stimulation and silicon electrode recordings
- Q&A session