construction-local-field-potential-microelectrodes-for-vivo

Construction of Local Field Potential Microelectrodes for <em>in vivo</em> Recordings from Multiple Brain Structures Simultaneously

Researchers often need to record local field potentials (LFPs) simultaneously from several brain structures. Recording from multiple desired brain regions ...

University of Virginia

Neuron shape and connectivity affect function. Modern imaging methods have proven successful at extracting morphological information. One potential path to achieve analysis of this morphology is through graph theory. Encoding by graphs enables the use of high throughput informatic methods to extract and infer brain function. However, the application of graph-theoretic methods to neuronal morphology comes with certain challenges in term of complex subgraph matching and the difficulty in computing intermediate shapes in between two imaged temporal samples. Here we report a novel, efficacious graph-theoretic method that rises to the challenges. The morphology of a neuron, which consists of its overall size, global shape, local branch patterns, and cell-specific biophysical properties, can vary significantly with the cell's identity, location, as well as developmental and physiological state. Various algorithms have been developed to customize shape based statistical and graph related features for quantitative analysis of neuromorphology, followed by the classification of neuron cell types using the features. Unlike the classical feature extraction based methods from imaged or 3D reconstructed neurons, we propose a model based on the rooted path decomposition from the soma to the dendrites of a neuron and extract morphological features from each constituent path. We hypothesize that measuring the distance between two neurons can be realized by minimizing the cost of continuously morphing the set of all rooted paths of one neuron to another. To validate this claim, we first establish the correspondence of paths between two neurons using a modified Munkres algorithm. Next, an elastic deformation framework that employs the square root velocity function is established to perform the continuous morphing, which, as an added benefit, provides an effective visualization tool. We experimentally show the efficacy of NeuroPath2Path, NeuroP2P, over the state of the art.

NeuroPath2Path: Classification and elastic morphing between neuronal arbors using path-wise similarity.

Critical for metabolism, oxygen plays an essential role in maintaining the structure and function of neurons. Oxygen sensing is important in common neurological disorders such as strokes, seizures, or neonatal hypoxic-ischemic injuries, which result from an imbalance between metabolic demand and oxygen supply. Phosphorescence quenching by oxygen provides a non-invasive optical method to measure oxygen levels within cells and tissues. Difluoroboron β-diketonates are a family of luminophores with high quantum yields and tunable fluorescence and phosphorescence when embedded in certain rigid matrices such as poly (lactic acid) (PLA). Boron nanoparticles (BNPs) can be fabricated from dye-PLA materials for oxygen mapping in a variety of biological milieu. These dual-emissive nanoparticles have oxygen-insensitive fluorescence, oxygen-sensitive phosphorescence, and rigid matrix all in one, enabling real-time ratiometric oxygen sensing at micron-level spatial and millisecond-level temporal resolution. In this study, BNPs are applied in mouse brain slices to investigate oxygen distributions and neuronal activity. The optical properties and physical stability of BNPs in a biologically relevant buffer were stable. Primary neuronal cultures were labeled by BNPs and the mitochondria membrane probe MitoTracker Red FM. BNPs were taken up by neuronal cell bodies, at dendrites, and at synapses, and the localization of BNPs was consistent with that of MitoTracker Red FM. The brain slices were stained with the BNPs, and the BNPs did not significantly affect the electrophysiological properties of neurons. Oxygen maps were generated in living brain slices where oxygen is found to be mostly consumed by mitochondria near synapses. Finally, the BNPs exhibited excellent response when the conditions varied from normoxic to hypoxic and when the neuronal activity was increased by increasing K concentration. This work demonstrates the capability of BNPs as a non-invasive tool in oxygen sensing and could provide fundamental insight into neuronal mechanisms and excitability research.

Difluoroboron β-diketonate polylactic acid oxygen nanosensors for intracellular neuronal imaging.

Emerging evidence raises the possibility that progesterone receptor (PR) signaling may contribute to the reproductive hormone fluctuation-linked seizure precipitation, called catamenial epilepsy. Therefore, we studied PR isoform expression in limbic regions involved in temporal lobe epilepsy and the effect of PR activation on neuronal activity and seizures.

Limbic progesterone receptor activity enhances neuronal excitability and seizures.

Acute injuries or insults to the cortex, such as trauma, subarachnoid hemorrhage, lobar hemorrhage, can cause seizures or status epilepticus(SE). Neocortical SE is associated with coma, worse prognosis, delayed recovery, and the development of epilepsy. The anatomical structures progressively recruited during neocortical-onset status epilepticus (SE) is unknown. Therefore, we constructed large-scale maps of brain regions active during neocortical SE.

Neuronal circuits sustaining neocortical-injury-induced status epilepticus.

Bilateral synchronous cortical activity occurs during sleep, attention, and seizures. Canonical models place the thalamus at the center of bilateral cortical synchronization because it generates bilateral sleep spindle oscillations and primarily generalized absence seizures. However, classical studies suggest that the corpus callosum mediates bilateral cortical synchronization.

Tamal Batabyal

Department of Neurology

University of Virginia

Construction of Local Field Potential Microelectrodes for in vivo Recordings from Multiple Brain Structures Simultaneously

Tamal Batabyal

.css-o250i3{font-size:18px;font-family:Open Sans,sans-serif;line-height:21.6px;}Department of Neurology

University of Virginia

Construction of Local Field Potential Microelectrodes for in vivo Recordings from Multiple Brain Structures Simultaneously

Department of Neurology