We are looking for a research assistant/lab manager to join the lab! A supportive, collaborative environment where you can learn neural recording with Neuropixels, optogenetics, fiber photometry, and neural data analysis.
Dive into the preprint for juicier bits, like how we deal with pesky opto-artifacts in the LFP, relationships with endogenous phase-locking, and whether we even have to do this optical stimulation experiment ever again to determine phase-dependent excitability.
8/N
Thus, we establish a proof-of-principle for the applicability of a CTC-based mechanism to striatum.
7/N
We found that over a third (37.3%) of cells showed statistically significant phase-dependent excitability in at least one of the canonical frequency bands.
6/N
If the response in a striatal neuron to a fixed stimulus varied by the LFP phase at which the stimulus was applied, that implies phase-dependent excitability in that neuron!
5/N
We applied optical stimulation to opsin-expressing striatal PV+ interneurons of awake, head-fixed, awake mice and asked if the magnitude of the response depended on the LFP phase of the stimulation.
4/N
However, coherence with upstream regions can translate to communication only if the downstream region (striatum) shows LFP phase-dependent fluctuations in excitability. It is not known if this requirement is met in striatum, so we did the experiment to investigate this -
3/N
There is an exceedingly rich tapestry of studies showing behavior- and task-related LFP coherence between striatum and its inputs, suggesting a “communication-through-coherence” (CTC; Fries 2005, 2015) style mechanism to help striatum flexibly switch between its inputs.
2/N
In a new pre-print (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...), Eric Carmichael, Matt van der Meer and I find evidence that excitability in the mouse striatum varies according to the striatal LFP phase.
Read on to find out why we think it’s important - 🧵
1/N
