Advances in optical imaging are changing the way that neuroscientists investigate brain and behavior. Instead of interrogating a few neurons in a sub-brain region of an immobile animal, the field is moving towards studies of large populations of neurons from across the brain in moving animals. I will present a suite of optical tools to control and record neural activity in the nematode C. elegans as it moves, including the first instrument to perform whole-brain calcium imaging with cellular resolution in an awake and unrestrained behaving animal. We are using this technology platform to investigate how a nervous system generates an animal’s behavior. We have already used these techniques to gain insight into the underlying neural mechanisms behind mechanosensation, forward locomotion, and the C. elegans escape response. Now we are beginning to expand our investigation to reveal how collective neural dynamics generates any behavior in the C. elegans behavioral repertoire. These measurements are a critical first step towards investigating higher-level functions like the time evolution of internal brain states and decision-making.


Wednesday, October 19, 2016, 12:00. Seminar Room

Hosted by Dr. Pablo Loza-Álvarez