Injectable fluorescent nanoparticles were used to track positions on and inside of freely moving animals at high resolution.

Photoactivatable neurotransmitters provide spatiotemporally precise experimenter control over endogenous receptor activation in living tissue. The resulting optical stimulus-neuronal response relationship provides a sensitive assay that can drive quantitative studies into receptor signaling. Here, we report a photocaged derivative of the prominent catecholamine neurotransmitter noradrenaline (NA). Appending a carboxynitroveratryl (CNV) caging group to the 4-hydroxyl of the catechol group produced CNV-NA, which displays good aqueous solubility and chemical stability. We verified CNV-NA’s lack of activity at α1B- and β2-adrenoreceptors expressed in HEK cells using a live-cell cAMP assay. We validated CNV-NA photoactivation at native α2-adrenoreceptors in brain slices of rat locus coeruleus using whole cell electrophysiological recordings. Monitoring the stereotyped outward current response to repeated CNV-NA photoactivation revealed that the neuropeptide substance P suppresses α2-adrenoreceptor signaling in locus coeruleus neurons. This work adds a new reagent to the growing library of photocaged neuroactive ligands, thereby expanding the scope and applications of photopharmacology.

Dopaminergic action prediction error signals are used by mice as a value-free teaching signal to reinforce stable sound–action associations in the tail of the striatum.

Adaptive decision making relies on dynamic updating of learned associations where environmental cues come to predict valenced stimuli, such as food or threat. Cue-guided behavior depends on a network ...

Although topographical maps organize many peripheral sensory systems, it remains unclear whether olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) choose which of the ~1100 odor receptors (ORs) to express based upon t...

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Scientific Reports - Connectomic analysis of taste circuits in Drosophila

Motor control in mammals is traditionally viewed as a hierarchy of descending spinal-targeting pathways, with frontal cortex at the top. Many redundant muscle patterns can solve a given task, and this...