Long-term in vivo Calcium Imaging of Neuromedin-S Neurons Reveals a Multi-model Timekeeping Mechanism in Mammal Suprachiasmatic Nucleus

Authors

• Q Tang
• J Cook
• M Yurgel
• J Jones
• S Hattar

Abstract

Over the last decades, optical recording techniques have revolutionized neuroscience research, allowing for the dissecting of neural activity with unprecedented cell-type specific resolution. Much of this research has focused on brain regions where stimulus-evoked changes in neural activity can be correlated to behavior on a timescale of seconds to minutes. However, the use of optical recording to study temporal changes to neural dynamics relevant to fundamental physiological and behavioral processes such as feeding, body temperature, or, critically, circadian timekeeping, has been limited. These processes take place on timescales of minutes, hours, or, in the case of circadian rhythms, days to weeks or longer. In the past years, long-term in vivo calcium imaging via fiber photometry has been a growing methodology to monitor the circadian rhythm in molecularly defined neuron populations. However, the analysis and interpretation of the results were mixed. Here we generated a comprehensive analysis pipeline using a combination of the analysis methods from literature. By recording the spontaneous calcium dynamics in neuromedin-S (NMS) neurons in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), we observed that calcium is a key player in multiple complex circadian timekeepign mechanisms.

Scientific Focus Area: Systems Biology

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