A fundamental goal of neuroscience is to understand the basic operations of the brain, and how they are affected by behavioral changes. More specifically, the ways in which neuronal activity is it related to the cognitive and behavioral processes? Since its development, optical microscopy has always been an instrument of choice to study the cellular […]

Understanding how brain processes information is the one of the most intriguing questions that modern neuroscience faces. This project is aimed to characterize how the lateral hypothalamus process information to downstream brain targets to guide proper behavioral responses. This brain area is well-known to regulate key aspects of the behavior. But how does it process […]

In the last years imaging using miniature microscopes (mini-microscopes also called mini-endoscopes) has become a method of choice for the understanding of activity at the cellular and network levels in different brain regions, in freely behaving animals. However, mini-microscopes are connected with wires to other devices, which largely alleviate the use of these imaging systems […]

La compréhension du système nerveux, plus particulièrement du cerveau, suscite beaucoup d’intérêt depuis toujours. Décoder l’organisation cellulaire ainsi que les modes de communication neuronaux demeurent par contre un énorme défi. La microscopie optique jumelée au développement de sonde fluorescente a permis de faire d’énorme progrès en neuroscience. Avec la venue de l’optogénétique et la capacité […]

We propose development of miniature fluorescent microscope with flexible spatiotemporal photostimulation patterns of ensembles of neurons in freely behaving animals.For precision and targeted photostimulation of light-activated proteins (opsins), the light beam from high power incoherent light source will be shaped by user-controlled digital micromirror device (DMD). The light patterns formed by DMD will be sent […]

B. Gosselin and Doric Lenses Inc. have developed the first low-cost wireless head mounted optogenetic device enabling simultaneous biopotential recording and optical stimulation in the brain of freely moving rodents. This project aims at providing such a wireless optogenetic headstage system with user programmable functions, so it can address the dual nature of brain biopotentials, […]