Recording large-scale, cellular-resolution neuronal activity from freely-moving mice

Das, A.; Holden, S.; Borovicka, J.; Icardi, J.; Patel, D.; Patel, R.; Raber, J.; Dana, H.

doi:10.1101/2022.06.01.494442

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2022.06.01.494442

Recording large-scale, cellular-resolution neuronal activity from freely-moving mice

Das, A.·Holden, S.·Borovicka, J.·Icardi, J.·Patel, D.·Patel, R.·Raber, J.·Dana, H.

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Abstract

Current methods for recording large-scale neuronal activity from behaving mice with single-cell resolution require either fixing the mouse head under a microscope or attachment of a recording device to the animals skull. Both of these options significantly affect the animal behavior and hence also the recorded brain activity patterns. Here, we introduce a new method to acquire snapshots of single-cell cortical activity maps from freely-moving mice using a calcium sensor called CaMPARI. CaMPARI has a unique property of irreversibly changing its color from green to red inside active neurons when illuminated with 400nm light. We capitalize on this property to demonstrate cortex-wide activity recording without any head fixation or attachment of a miniaturized device to the mouses head. Multiple cortical regions were recorded while the mouse was performing a battery of behavioral and cognitive tests. We identified task-dependent activity patterns across motor and somatosensory cortices, with significant differences across sub-regions of the motor cortex. This new CaMPARI-based recording method expands the capabilities of recording neuronal activity from freely-moving and behaving mice under minimally-restrictive experimental conditions and provides large-scale volumetric data that are not accessible otherwise.

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Das, A., Holden, S., Borovicka, J., Icardi, J., Patel, D., Patel, R., Raber, J., Dana, H.. 2022-06-03. Recording large-scale, cellular-resolution neuronal activity from freely-moving mice. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.01.494442

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