2014 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Optogenetic control of visual perception
| Project/Area Number |
26290011
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| Research Institution | The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research |
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Principal Investigator |
ベヌッチ アンドレア 独立行政法人理化学研究所, 脳科学総合研究センター, チームリーダー (50722352)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
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| Keywords | mouse / visual cortex / imaging / electrophysiology / behavior / decision making / optogenetics |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The Laboratory has operated for most of the fiscal year only with the aid of technical staff. Starting on January 1st one postdoctoral fellow has joined the lab and from the beginning of FY2015 four more fellows have been joining the lab.
Progress on animal behavior: the 1st generation of automated behavioral setups has been optimized and we are progressing to the 2nd generation. The 1st generation has confirmed the feasibility of fully-automated training in several animals, both for visual detection and discrimination tasks. The 2nd generation has just started being set-up.
Progress on Imaging and electrophysiology: we have finished setting up the two-photon imaging system for in-vivo calcium imaging and obtained several high-quality test results in a number of transgenic animals. We have also fine-tuned a wide-field imaging system for fluorescent recordings of multiple visual areas. It has produced very high-quality test results. The electrophysiology setup has been successfully setup and it is currently in intense testing phase.
Progress on Genetics, viral approaches: we have tested and develop several viral constructs that we consider suitable for our experiments. 80% of the constructs of interest have been fully tested and will be either kept or tossed in future experiments. 20% are still in an intense benchmarking phase.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The progress has been very smooth and according to the planned timeline.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Plan on animal behavior: finish the 2nd generation of behavioral training setups, train mice in even more complex behavioral tasks, and collect more data to validate projects` hypotheses.
Plan on Imaging and electrophysiology: finishing the testing phase on in-vivo fluorescent Calcium imaging, focus on hypothesis testing by recording from animals trained in behavioral tasks. Extensively test new triple-transgenic animals(Madisen,..., Benucci, et al., Neuron 2015).Finishing testing phase for electrophysiology.
Plan on Optogenetics: finish testing a number of constructs for activity-dependent expression of optogenetic constructs. Apply the chosen tools to animals trained in behavioral tasks.
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| Causes of Carryover |
The optimization of the behavioral setups for training mice has required a longer than expected optimization process, both for the software and hardware. Hence we did not purchase as many setups (and related components) as originally planned.
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| Expenditure Plan for Carryover Budget |
The optimization of the mouse behavioral setups is now progressing smoothly, hence we intend to scale-up and purchase more of them. Moreover, new postdoctoral fellows have joined the lab and the personnel costs will grow accordingly. In particular, I am planning to use available funds to allow them to travel domestically to meetings and schools.
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