Previous studies have shown that visual cortical neurons in old mammals exhibit higher spontaneous activity,higher responsiveness to visual stimuli,and lower selectivity for stimulus orientations and motion directions...Previous studies have shown that visual cortical neurons in old mammals exhibit higher spontaneous activity,higher responsiveness to visual stimuli,and lower selectivity for stimulus orientations and motion directions than did neurons in young adult counterparts.However,whether the responsive difference in cortical neurons between young and old animals resulted from different effects induced by anesthetics has remained unclear.To clarify this issue,we recorded the response properties of individual neurons in the primary visual cortex of old and young adult cats while systematically varying the anesthesia level of urethane,a widely used anesthetic in physiology experiments.Our results showed that cumulatively administrating 50 mg and 100 mg of urethane upon the minimal level of urethane required to anesthetize an old or young adult cat did not significantly alter the degree of neuronal response selectivity for stimulus orientations and motion directions nor significantly change the visually-driven response and spontaneous activity of neurons in old and young adult cats.Cumulatively administrating 150 mg of urethane decreased neuronal responsiveness similarly in both age groups.Therefore,urethane appears to exert similar effects on neuronal response properties of old and young adult animals.展开更多
To decipher the organizational logic of complex brain circuits,it is important to chart long-distance pathways while preserving micron-level accuracy of local network.However,mapping the neuronal projections with indi...To decipher the organizational logic of complex brain circuits,it is important to chart long-distance pathways while preserving micron-level accuracy of local network.However,mapping the neuronal projections with individual-axon resolution in the large and complex primate brain is still challenging.Herein,we describe a highly efficient pipeline for three-dimensional mapping of the entire macaque brain with subcellular resolution.The pipeline includes a novel poly-N-acryloyl glycinamide(PNAGA)-based embedding method for long-term structure and fluorescence preservation,high-resolution and rapid whole-brain optical imaging,and image post-processing.The cytoarchitectonic information of the entire macaque brain was acquired with a voxel size of 0.32μm×0.32μm×10μm,showing its anatomical structure with cell distribution,density,and shape.Furthermore,thanks to viral labeling,individual long-distance projection axons from the frontal cortex were for the first time reconstructed across the entire brain hemisphere with a voxel size of 0.65μm×0.65μm×3μm.Our results show that individual cortical axons originating from the prefrontal cortex simultaneously target multiple brain regions,including the visual cortex,striatum,thalamus,and midbrain.This pipeline provides an efficient method for cellular and circuitry investigation of the whole macaque brain with individual-axon resolution,and can shed light on brain function and disorders.展开更多
基金Supported by Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province (070413138)the Key Research Foundation of Anhui Province Education Department (KJ2009A167)
文摘Previous studies have shown that visual cortical neurons in old mammals exhibit higher spontaneous activity,higher responsiveness to visual stimuli,and lower selectivity for stimulus orientations and motion directions than did neurons in young adult counterparts.However,whether the responsive difference in cortical neurons between young and old animals resulted from different effects induced by anesthetics has remained unclear.To clarify this issue,we recorded the response properties of individual neurons in the primary visual cortex of old and young adult cats while systematically varying the anesthesia level of urethane,a widely used anesthetic in physiology experiments.Our results showed that cumulatively administrating 50 mg and 100 mg of urethane upon the minimal level of urethane required to anesthetize an old or young adult cat did not significantly alter the degree of neuronal response selectivity for stimulus orientations and motion directions nor significantly change the visually-driven response and spontaneous activity of neurons in old and young adult cats.Cumulatively administrating 150 mg of urethane decreased neuronal responsiveness similarly in both age groups.Therefore,urethane appears to exert similar effects on neuronal response properties of old and young adult animals.
基金supported by the National Basic Research Program of China(973 Project2015CB755602)+3 种基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(61721092,61890953,31871088,and 81871082)Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province(2019B030335001)CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences(2019-I2M-5-014)the Director Fund of Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics。
文摘To decipher the organizational logic of complex brain circuits,it is important to chart long-distance pathways while preserving micron-level accuracy of local network.However,mapping the neuronal projections with individual-axon resolution in the large and complex primate brain is still challenging.Herein,we describe a highly efficient pipeline for three-dimensional mapping of the entire macaque brain with subcellular resolution.The pipeline includes a novel poly-N-acryloyl glycinamide(PNAGA)-based embedding method for long-term structure and fluorescence preservation,high-resolution and rapid whole-brain optical imaging,and image post-processing.The cytoarchitectonic information of the entire macaque brain was acquired with a voxel size of 0.32μm×0.32μm×10μm,showing its anatomical structure with cell distribution,density,and shape.Furthermore,thanks to viral labeling,individual long-distance projection axons from the frontal cortex were for the first time reconstructed across the entire brain hemisphere with a voxel size of 0.65μm×0.65μm×3μm.Our results show that individual cortical axons originating from the prefrontal cortex simultaneously target multiple brain regions,including the visual cortex,striatum,thalamus,and midbrain.This pipeline provides an efficient method for cellular and circuitry investigation of the whole macaque brain with individual-axon resolution,and can shed light on brain function and disorders.
