Massively Parallel Optical Imaging of Cognition Events in Neuronal Networks in Freely Behaving Mice

Project Details

We have recently implemented for the first time in Australia the “miniscope” technique (see http://miniscope.org/index.php/Main_Page, and see our setup in https://ndl-lab.org/), in which we put small fluorescent microscopes into mouse brains and observe the activity of hundreds of neurons over many months while the animal is performing cognitive tasks such as memory encoding. We can also see the direct effects of cognition-affecting drugs such as antidepressants and antipsychotics in real time to correlate with neuronal network activity, allowing a whole new level of analysis and comprehension of brain phenomena.  This is super neat.

This project has several streams – it can be implemented for epilepsy, drug testing, dementia models, MS models etc. We would like to set up an epilepsy related project with miniscopes as an Honours/Masters/PhD project.

Project Lead

Dr Chris French

frenchc@unimelb.edu.au

+61 3 8344 3276