Deep-brain imaging

Deep-brain imaging reveals which nearly identical neurons are associated with specific behaviors

More precise mapping of how individual neurons interact in the brain

January 30, 2015

Each image is of the same exact neurons of a genetically defined group of cells. But some (left) fire while mice search for food; others (right) fire while the mice eat food. Scale bars, 100 micrometers. (Credit: Garret Stuber, PhD)

Researchers at the UNC School of Medicine have used new deep-brain imaging techniques to link the activity of individual, genetically similar neurons to particular behaviors of freely moving mice.

For the first time ever, scientists watched as one neuron was activated when a mouse searched for food while a nearly identical neuron next to it remained inactive; instead, the second neuron only became activated when the mouse began eating./.../