Title: Illuminating links between neural circuit activity and behaviour
Abstract: Understanding the causal relationship between activity patterns in neural circuits and behavior is
one of the fundamental questions in systems neuroscience. Addressing this problem requires the
ability to perform rapid and targeted interventions in ongoing neuronal activity at cellular resolution
and with millisecond precision. I will describe results of experiments using a powerful new "all-
optical” strategy for interrogating neural circuits which combines simultaneous two-photon imaging
and two-photon optogenetics. This enables the activity of functionally characterized and
genetically defined ensembles of neurons to be manipulated with sufficient temporal and spatial
resolution to enable physiological patterns of network activity to be reproduced. I will describe how we have used
this approach to identify the lower bound for perception of cortical activity, probe how brain state
influences the role of cortex in perception, and provide causal tests of the role of hippocampal
place cells in spatial navigation.
Speaker: Michael Häusser, University College London, UK