160 research outputs found
The Challenge of Connecting the Dots in the B.R.A.I.N.
The Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative has focused scientific attention on the necessary tools to understand the human brain and mind. Here, we outline our collective vision for what we can achieve within a decade with properly targeted efforts and discuss likely technological deliverables and neuroscience progress
Development of a beam propagation method to simulate the point spread function degradation in scattering media
Scattering is one of the main issues that limit the imaging depth in deep tissue optical imaging. To characterize the role of scattering, we have developed a forward model based on the beam propagation method and established the link between the macroscopic optical properties of the media and the statistical parameters of the phase masks applied to the wavefront. Using this model, we have analyzed the degradation of the point-spread function of the illumination beam in the transition regime from ballistic to diffusive light transport. Our method provides a wave-optic simulation toolkit to analyze the effects of scattering on image quality degradation in scanning microscopy. Our open-source implementation is available at https://github.com/BUNPC/Beam-Propagation-Method.Accepted manuscrip
The Possible Role of CO2 in Producing A Post-Stimulus CBF and BOLD Undershoot
Comprehending the underlying mechanisms of neurovascular coupling is important for understanding the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases related to uncoupling. Moreover, it elucidates the casual relation between the neural signaling and the hemodynamic responses measured with various imaging modalities such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). There are mainly two hypotheses concerning this mechanism: a metabolic hypothesis and a neurogenic hypothesis. We have modified recent models of neurovascular coupling adding the effects of both NO (nitric oxide) kinetics, which is a well-known neurogenic vasodilator, and CO2 kinetics as a metabolic vasodilator. We have also added the Hodgkin–Huxley equations relating the membrane potentials to sodium influx through the membrane. Our results show that the dominant factor in the hemodynamic response is NO, however CO2 is important in producing a brief post-stimulus undershoot in the blood flow response that in turn modifies the fMRI blood oxygenation level-dependent post-stimulus undershoot. Our results suggest that increased cerebral blood flow during stimulation causes CO2 washout which then results in a post-stimulus hypocapnia induced vasoconstrictive effect
Upcoming Neurophotonics Status Report
Forthcoming status report articles provide updates on microscopy and on diffuse optical imaging in neurophotonics
The Challenge of Connecting the Dots in the B.R.A.I.N.
The Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative has focused scientific attention on the necessary tools to understand the human brain and mind. Here, we outline our collective vision for what we can achieve within a decade with properly targeted efforts and discuss likely technological deliverables and neuroscience progress
Functional effects of schizophrenia-linked genetic variants on intrinsic single-neuron excitability: A modeling study
Background: Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified a
large number of genetic risk factors for schizophrenia (SCZ) featuring ion
channels and calcium transporters. For some of these risk factors, independent
prior investigations have examined the effects of genetic alterations on the
cellular electrical excitability and calcium homeostasis. In the present
proof-of-concept study, we harnessed these experimental results for modeling of
computational properties on layer V cortical pyramidal cell and identify
possible common alterations in behavior across SCZ-related genes.
Methods: We applied a biophysically detailed multi-compartmental model to
study the excitability of a layer V pyramidal cell. We reviewed the literature
on functional genomics for variants of genes associated with SCZ, and used
changes in neuron model parameters to represent the effects of these variants.
Results: We present and apply a framework for examining the effects of subtle
single nucleotide polymorphisms in ion channel and Ca2+ transporter-encoding
genes on neuron excitability. Our analysis indicates that most of the
considered SCZ- related genetic variants affect the spiking behavior and
intracellular calcium dynamics resulting from summation of inputs across the
dendritic tree.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that alteration in the ability of a single
neuron to integrate the inputs and scale its excitability may constitute a
fundamental mechanistic contributor to mental disease, alongside with the
previously proposed deficits in synaptic communication and network behavior
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Neurovascular Network Explorer 1.0: a database of 2-photon single-vessel diameter measurements with MATLAB® graphical user interface
We present a database client software—Neurovascular Network Explorer 1.0 (NNE 1.0)—that uses MATLAB® based Graphical User Interface (GUI) for interaction with a database of 2-photon single-vessel diameter measurements from our previous publication (Tian et al., 2010). These data are of particular interest for modeling the hemodynamic response. NNE 1.0 is downloaded by the user and then runs either as a MATLAB script or as a standalone program on a Windows platform. The GUI allows browsing the database according to parameters specified by the user, simple manipulation and visualization of the retrieved records (such as averaging and peak-normalization), and export of the results. Further, we provide NNE 1.0 source code. With this source code, the user can database their own experimental results, given the appropriate data structure and naming conventions, and thus share their data in a user-friendly format with other investigators. NNE 1.0 provides an example of seamless and low-cost solution for sharing of experimental data by a regular size neuroscience laboratory and may serve as a general template, facilitating dissemination of biological results and accelerating data-driven modeling approaches
Estimation of Thalamocortical and Intracortical Network Models from Joint Thalamic Single-Electrode and Cortical Laminar-Electrode Recordings in the Rat Barrel System
A new method is presented for extraction of population firing-rate models for
both thalamocortical and intracortical signal transfer based on stimulus-evoked
data from simultaneous thalamic single-electrode and cortical recordings using
linear (laminar) multielectrodes in the rat barrel system. Time-dependent
population firing rates for granular (layer 4), supragranular (layer 2/3), and
infragranular (layer 5) populations in a barrel column and the thalamic
population in the homologous barreloid are extracted from the high-frequency
portion (multi-unit activity; MUA) of the recorded extracellular signals. These
extracted firing rates are in turn used to identify population firing-rate
models formulated as integral equations with exponentially decaying coupling
kernels, allowing for straightforward transformation to the more common
firing-rate formulation in terms of differential equations. Optimal model
structures and model parameters are identified by minimizing the deviation
between model firing rates and the experimentally extracted population firing
rates. For the thalamocortical transfer, the experimental data favor a model
with fast feedforward excitation from thalamus to the layer-4 laminar population
combined with a slower inhibitory process due to feedforward and/or recurrent
connections and mixed linear-parabolic activation functions. The extracted
firing rates of the various cortical laminar populations are found to exhibit
strong temporal correlations for the present experimental paradigm, and simple
feedforward population firing-rate models combined with linear or mixed
linear-parabolic activation function are found to provide excellent fits to the
data. The identified thalamocortical and intracortical network models are thus
found to be qualitatively very different. While the thalamocortical circuit is
optimally stimulated by rapid changes in the thalamic firing rate, the
intracortical circuits are low-pass and respond most strongly to slowly varying
inputs from the cortical layer-4 population
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