Project Abstract
The mission of the Advanced Imaging and Instrumentation Core will be to deliver the necessary technical skill, training, and resources to enable the complex in-vivo research projects proposed. The current U19 proposal is only possible thanks to very recent developments in in-vivo imaging, recording and manipulation techniques that have enabled real-time studies in awake behaving mice. In particular, it is essential to leverage in-vivo, awake measurement techniques to study motor control since one must be able to measure associated motor output and task performance. Our Advanced Imaging and Instrumentation Core is composed of key experts in the development and deployment of novel technologies, 2 of them BRAIN Initiative grant awardees. However, it is important to note that the technologies to be deployed here will not require significant high-risk innovation, but rather represent the integration and implementation of recently demonstrate breakthrough techniques for rigorous application to studying motor circuits. These include 3-photon in-vivo functional microscopy, Adaptive optics assisted photo manipulation, wide-field optical mapping and meso-scale two-photon microscopy. These imaging methods will be combined with innovative surgical preparations, tasks, electrode recordings and closed-loop strategies. Importantly, none of these technologies is available commercially, and thus the core will need to ensure that these systems are quickly and effectively established and supported throughout the duration of the project. Documentation of this development will be accompanied by adoption of ever-evolving new technologies as they become available. The Advanced Imaging and Instrumentation Core will also play an important role in training and enabling researcher to adopt complex techniques, while working closely with the Data Science Resource core on all aspects of data standardization, archiving, analysis and dissemination. Overall, this core will represent a deep collaboration between experts in the development and deployment of novel technologies, in collaboration with those leveraging the power of these important systems.
