Probing the function of neuronal populations : combining micromirror-based optogenetic photostimulation with voltage-sensitive dye imaging

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2012. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Neuroscience Research 75 (2013): 76-81, doi:10.1016/j.neures.2012.11.006.
Recent advances in our understanding of brain function have come from using light to either control or image neuronal activity. Here we describe an approach that combines both techniques: a micromirror array is used to photostimulate populations of presynaptic neurons expressing channelrhodopsin-2, while a red-shifted voltage-sensitive dye allows optical detection of resulting postsynaptic activity. Such technology allowed us to control the activity of cerebellar interneurons while simultaneously recording inhibitory responses in multiple Purkinje neurons, their postsynaptic targets. This approach should substantially accelerate our understanding of information processing by populations of neurons within brain circuits.
This work was supported by a Grass Foundation fellowship, National Institutes of Health (NIH grant: R01 EB001963), Duke‐NUS Signature Research Program (SRP) block grant, CRP grant from the National Research Foundation (Singapore) and by the World Class Institute (WCI) Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Korea (MEST) (NRF Grant Number: WCI 2009-003).