Sparse optical microstimulation in barrel cortex drives learned behaviour in freely moving mice

Daniel Huber, Leopoldo Petreanu, Nima Ghitani, Sachin Ranade, Tomáš Hromádka, Zach Mainen and Karel Svoboda ()
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Daniel Huber: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Farm Research Campus, Ashburn, Virginia 20147, USA
Leopoldo Petreanu: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Farm Research Campus, Ashburn, Virginia 20147, USA
Nima Ghitani: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Farm Research Campus, Ashburn, Virginia 20147, USA
Sachin Ranade: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724, USA
Tomáš Hromádka: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724, USA
Zach Mainen: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724, USA
Karel Svoboda: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Farm Research Campus, Ashburn, Virginia 20147, USA

Nature, 2008, vol. 451, issue 7174, 61-64

Abstract: Abstract Electrical microstimulation can establish causal links between the activity of groups of neurons and perceptual and cognitive functions1,2,3,4,5,6. However, the number and identities of neurons microstimulated, as well as the number of action potentials evoked, are difficult to ascertain7,8. To address these issues we introduced the light-gated algal channel channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2)9 specifically into a small fraction of layer 2/3 neurons of the mouse primary somatosensory cortex. ChR2 photostimulation in vivo reliably generated stimulus-locked action potentials10,11,12,13 at frequencies up to 50 Hz. Here we show that naive mice readily learned to detect brief trains of action potentials (five light pulses, 1 ms, 20 Hz). After training, mice could detect a photostimulus firing a single action potential in approximately 300 neurons. Even fewer neurons (approximately 60) were required for longer stimuli (five action potentials, 250 ms). Our results show that perceptual decisions and learning can be driven by extremely brief epochs of cortical activity in a sparse subset of supragranular cortical pyramidal neurons.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1038/nature06445

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