David C Lyon, UC Irvine / Italian Institute of Technology

Novel viral based approach for tracing and optogenetic manipulation of specific neural circuits in non-transgenic animals

In primary visual cortex, inhibition is essential for refining several basic functional characteristics, including preferences for stimulus contrast, size, and orientation.  Multiple inhibitory neuron sub-types have been described and are now being studied in great detail in transgenic mouse models.  To enable study of inhibitory neurons in non-transgenic mammals with more complex visual systems we have developed the use of cell type specific promoters in neurotropic viruses to selectively deliver receptor genes for a second virus, genetically modified rabies, which allows for circuit tracing and optogenetic manipulation.  In this talk I will describe this method and how we are using it to understand basic feature processing in V1.

Additional Information

Talk within the Colloquium Series of the GRK 1589 "Sensory Computation in Neural Systems"

Organized by

Klaus Obermayer / Robert Martin