Neuron Imaging Technique for Monitoring Brain Cells

A team led by MIT neuroscientists has developed a way to monitor how brain cells coordinate with each other to control specific behaviors, such as initiating movement or detecting an odor. The researchers' new imaging technique, based on the detection of calcium ions in neurons, could help them map the brain circuits that perform such functions. It could also provide new insights into the origins of autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other psychiatric diseases.

Transcript

00:00:05 [Narrator] To preform any kind of brain function neurons must communicate with one another through electrical signals. Those signals require a production of calcium which neuroscientists can image to study how the brain acts and reacts to the outside world. [Guoping Feng] In our brain we have billions of neurons. They form precise patterns of connections and they communicate precisely with one another. This precise connection and communication allow us to precisely sense the outside world and also allow us to respond to the

00:00:36 outside world properly. [Narrator] Until now researchers have been unable to use calcium imaging with specific cells in isolation. A team at MIT has created a new system of imaging that can be targeted to specific cell types. [Guoping Feng] So in general when you have a brain and you look at it you wouldn't see anything. This is a brain slice actually, but you wouldn't see anything. So this technique allows whenever the neuron fires it will show a green fluorescence. The way this technology works is by

00:01:08 genetically engineering the neurons; let them express a protein which is sensitive to neuronal activity. So that's how we can see the neurons firing. So this green florescence will allow us to monitor different patterns of neuronal activity, how behaviors trigger the neurons to have very unique patterns, and especially will allow us to use animal models to study the abnormal patterns in neuronal activity in psychiatric disorders. [Narrator] This system can provide new insight into the origins of diseases such as autism and obsessive

00:01:41 compulsive disorder.