Greenfield Susan A, Badin Antoine-Scott, Ferrati Giovanni, Devonshire Ian M
Neuro-Bio Ltd., Building F5, Culham Science Centre, Abingdon, United Kingdom.
University of Oxford, Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Neurophotonics. 2017 Jul;4(3):031213. doi: 10.1117/1.NPh.4.3.031213. Epub 2017 May 24.
Optical imaging with voltage-sensitive dyes enables the visualization of extensive yet highly transient coalitions of neurons (assemblies) operating throughout the brain on a subsecond time scale. We suggest that operating at the mesoscale level of brain organization, neuronal assemblies may provide a functional link between "bottom-up" cellular mechanisms and "top-down" cognitive ones within anatomically defined regions. We demonstrate in rat brain slices how varying spatiotemporal dynamics of assemblies reveal differences not previously appreciated between: different stages of development in cortical versus subcortical brain areas, different sensory modalities (hearing versus vision), different classes of psychoactive drugs (anesthetics versus analgesics), different effects of anesthesia linked to hyperbaric conditions and, , depths of anesthesia. The strategy of voltage-sensitive dye imaging is therefore as powerful as it is versatile and as such can now be applied to the evaluation of neurochemical signaling systems and the screening of related new drugs, as well as to mathematical modeling and, eventually, even theories of consciousness.
使用电压敏感染料进行光学成像能够在亚秒级时间尺度上可视化整个大脑中广泛而高度瞬变的神经元联合（集合体）。我们认为，在脑组织的中尺度水平上运作时，神经元集合体可能在解剖学定义区域内的“自下而上”细胞机制和“自上而下”认知机制之间提供功能联系。我们在大鼠脑切片中证明，集合体不同的时空动态如何揭示出以前未被认识到的差异，这些差异存在于：皮层与皮层下脑区发育的不同阶段、不同的感觉模态（听觉与视觉）、不同类别的精神活性药物（麻醉剂与镇痛药）、与高压条件相关的麻醉的不同效果以及麻醉深度。因此，电压敏感染料成像策略既强大又通用，现在可应用于神经化学信号系统的评估和相关新药的筛选，以及数学建模，最终甚至可应用于意识理论。
