Whole-brain calcium imaging with cellular resolution in freely behaving Caenorhabditis elegans.

Whole-brain calcium imaging with cellular resolution in freely behaving C. elegans

The ability to acquire large-scale recordings of neuronal activity in awake and unrestrained animals poses a major challenge for studying neural coding of animal behavior. We present a new instrument capable of recording intracellular calcium transients from every neuron in the head of a freely behaving C. elegans with cellular resolution while simultaneously recording the animal’s position, po...

Ratiometric Calcium Imaging of Individual Neurons in Behaving Caenorhabditis Elegans.

It has become increasingly clear that neural circuit activity in behaving animals differs substantially from that seen in anesthetized or immobilized animals. Highly sensitive, genetically encoded fluorescent reporters of Ca2+ have revolutionized the recording of cell and synaptic activity using non-invasive optical approaches in behaving animals. When combined with genetic and optogenetic tech...

Automated imaging of neuronal activity in freely behaving Caenorhabditis elegans.

In order to understand how neuronal circuits control locomotory patterns it is necessary to record neuronal activity of freely behaving animals. Here, using a new automated system for simultaneous recording of behavior and neuronal activity in freely moving Caenorhabditis elegans on standard agar plates, we show that spontaneous reversals from forward to backward locomotion reflect precisely th...

Ratiometric calcium imaging of individual neurons in behaving Caenorhabditis 1 elegans 2

Automatically tracking neurons in a moving and deforming brain

Advances in optical neuroimaging techniques now allow neural activity to be recorded with cellular resolution in awake and behaving animals. Brain motion in these recordings pose a unique challenge. The location of individual neurons must be tracked in 3D over time to accurately extract single neuron activity traces. Recordings from small invertebrates like C. elegans are especially challenging...