Informational lesions: optical perturbation of spike timing and neural synchrony via microbial opsin gene fusions
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Boyden_Informational lesions.pdf
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Author(s)
Han, Xue
Qian, Xiaofeng
Stern, Patrick
Chuong, Amy S.
Boyden, Edward
Date Issued
July 2009
Journal
Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience
Publisher
Frontiers Research Foundation
Citation
Han X, Qian X, Stern P, Chuong AS and Boyden ES (2009). Informational lesions: optical perturbation of spike timing and neural synchrony via microbial opsin gene fusions. Front. Mol. Neurosci. 2:12. doi: 10.3389/neuro.02.012.2009
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Synchronous neural activity occurs throughout the brain in association with normal and pathological brain functions. Despite theoretical work exploring how such neural coordination might facilitate neural computation and be corrupted in disease states, it has proven difficult to test experimentally the causal role of synchrony in such phenomena. Attempts to manipulate neural synchrony often alter other features of neural activity such as firing rate. Here we evaluate a single gene which encodes for the blue-light gated cation channel channelrhodopsin-2 and the yellow-light driven chloride pump halorhodopsin from Natronobacterium pharaonis, linked by a ‘self-cleaving’ 2A peptide. This fusion enables proportional expression of both opsins, sensitizing neurons to being bi-directionally controlled with blue and yellow light, facilitating proportional optical spike insertion and deletion upon delivery of trains of precisely-timed blue and yellow light pulses. Such approaches may enable more detailed explorations of the causal role of specific features of the neural code.
Subjects
optogenetics
channelrhodopsin-2
halorhodopsin
fusion protein
synchrony
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Laboratory
McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT
Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3389/neuro.02.012.2009
