Mapping cortical mesoscopic networks of single spiking cortical or sub-cortical neurons

Abstract

Understanding the basis of brain function requires knowledge of cortical operations over wide-spatial scales, but also within the context of single neurons. In vivo, wide-field GCaMP imaging and sub-cortical/cortical cellular electrophysiology were used in mice to investigate relationships between spontaneous single neuron spiking and mesoscopic cortical activity. We make use of a rich set of cortical activity motifs that are present in spontaneous activity in anesthetized and awake animals. A mesoscale spike-triggered averaging procedure allowed the identification of motifs that are preferentially linked to individual spiking neurons by employing genetically targeted indicators of neuronal activity. Thalamic neurons predicted and reported specific cycles of wide-scale cortical inhibition/excitation. In contrast, spike-triggered maps derived from single cortical neurons yielded spatio-temporal maps expected for regional cortical consensus function. This approach can define network relationships between any point source of neuronal spiking and mesoscale cortical maps.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Dongsheng Xiao

    Department of Psychiatry, Kinsmen Laboratory of Neurological Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-1669-0021
  2. Matthieu P Vanni

    Department of Psychiatry, Kinsmen Laboratory of Neurological Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Catalin C Mitelut

    Department of Psychiatry, Kinsmen Laboratory of Neurological Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Allen W Chan

    Department of Psychiatry, Kinsmen Laboratory of Neurological Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Jeff M LeDue

    Department of Psychiatry, Kinsmen Laboratory of Neurological Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Yicheng Xie

    Department of Psychiatry, Kinsmen Laboratory of Neurological Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Andrew CN Chen

    Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Nicholas V Swindale

    Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Timothy H Murphy

    Department of Psychiatry, Kinsmen Laboratory of Neurological Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
    For correspondence
    thmurphy@mail.ubc.ca
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-0093-4490

Funding

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MOP-12675)

  • Timothy H Murphy

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (FDN-143209)

  • Timothy H Murphy

International Alliance of Translational Neuroscience (N/A)

  • Dongsheng Xiao

Brain Canada, Canadian Neurophotonics Platform

  • Jeff M LeDue
  • Timothy H Murphy

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: Animal protocols (A13-0336 and A14-0266) were approved by the University of British Columbia Animal Care Committee and conformed to the Canadian Council on Animal Care and Use guidelines.

Reviewing Editor

  1. David Kleinfeld, University of California, San Diego, United States

Version history

  1. Received: July 24, 2016
  2. Accepted: February 2, 2017
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: February 4, 2017 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: February 27, 2017 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2017, Xiao et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Dongsheng Xiao
  2. Matthieu P Vanni
  3. Catalin C Mitelut
  4. Allen W Chan
  5. Jeff M LeDue
  6. Yicheng Xie
  7. Andrew CN Chen
  8. Nicholas V Swindale
  9. Timothy H Murphy
(2017)
Mapping cortical mesoscopic networks of single spiking cortical or sub-cortical neurons
eLife 6:e19976.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.19976

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