EXAMINING FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY WITHIN THE CEREBELLA MICROCIRCUIT
We use the Mightex Polygon to study functional connectivity within the cerebellar microcircuit.
To do this, we perform electrophysiology experiments on acute brain slices from mice that transgenically express the light-sensitive cation channel ChR2 in Purkinje cells to evaluate patterns of connectivity between Purkinje cells and cerebellar nuclei neurons.
The Polygon allows us to sequentially stimulate different cerebellar lobules in quick succession to assess the presence of a functional connection. With these data we are characterizing how different kinds of information are integrated within the cerebellum, and how these patterns may be implicated in behavior.
Figure 1. Schematic of Patterned Optogenetics Stimulation.
Author: Kim Gruver
Bio: Kim is a PhD student in the Department of Biology at McGill University. She is supervised by Dr. Alanna Watt.