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. 2021 Jul 1;15:664781. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2021.664781

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Copyright © 2021 Rothhaas and Chung.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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Methods of neural activity manipulation and monitoring. (A) Methods for activating neurons. Top, Electrical stimulation allows for activating neurons in the area where the stimulating electrode is located. Middle, Expressing light-activated excitatory opsins such as channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) in genetically-defined neurons allows for the manipulation of specific neural populations on the order of milliseconds using light (Deisseroth, 2015; Grosenick et al., 2015; Deisseroth and Hegemann, 2017; Kim et al., 2017). Bottom, Optogenetic stimulation of ChR2 expressing GABA^POA→TMN neurons promotes sleep. Bottom left, Example EEG and EMG traces before and during laser stimulation (blue shading). Bottom right, Percentage of time in NREM, REM or wake state before, during, and after laser stimulation (blue shading). (B) Methods for inactivating neural activity. Top, The specific brain region can be lesioned or inactivated for example by injecting the neurotoxin ibotenic acid or muscimol. Middle, Expression of light sensitive inhibitory opsins in genetically-defined neurons enables the inhibition of specific neural populations (Wiegert et al., 2017). Bottom, Optogenetic inhibition of the iC++ expressing GABA^POA→TMN neurons suppresses sleep. Left, Example EEG and EMG traces before and during laser stimulation (blue shading). Right, Percentage of time in NREM, REM or wake state before, during, and after laser stimulation (blue shading). (C) Methods for recording neural activity. Top, c-Fos immunohistochemistry has been used to detect neurons in the POA that are activated following sleep. Example POA neurons stained for expression of c-Fos (green) following deprivation-induced sleep rebound. Middle and bottom, Optrodes allow for identifying ChR2-expressing neurons and recording their spiking activity during sleep and wakefulness. An example recording from GABA^POA→TMN neurons. Reproduced from Chung et al. (2017). Sagittal and coronal brain scheme adapted from Allen Mouse Brain Atlas (©Allen Brain Atlas API. Available from http://api.brain-map.org).