Katz L C, Dalva M B
Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710.
J Neurosci Methods. 1994 Oct;54(2):205-18. doi: 10.1016/0165-0270(94)90194-5.
A new technique for understanding the organization of complex circuits in the vertebrate brain, scanning laser photostimulation, is described. This approach is based on the photolysis of a caged form of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. Computer-controlled photostimulation and whole cell recording in brain slices allow the construction of detailed maps of the position, strength, sign and number of inputs converging on a single postsynaptic neuron. Scanning laser photostimulation offers many advantages over current techniques: spatial resolution is superb, fibers of passage are not activated, and thousands of presynaptic locations can be stimulated. This review describes the technique of photostimulation, outlines the instrumentation, necessary to implement it, and discusses the interpretation of photostimulation-derived data. Several examples of applications, ranging from mapping circuits in the mammalian visual cortex to determining receptor distributions on single neurons are considered. Although still in its early stages, scanning laser photostimulation offers neuroscientists a powerful tool for determining the organization and function of local brain circuits.
本文描述了一种用于理解脊椎动物大脑复杂回路组织的新技术——扫描激光光刺激。这种方法基于对笼形兴奋性神经递质谷氨酸的光解。在脑片中进行计算机控制的光刺激和全细胞记录，可以构建汇聚到单个突触后神经元的输入的位置、强度、符号和数量的详细图谱。与当前技术相比，扫描激光光刺激具有许多优势：空间分辨率极高，不会激活过路纤维，并且可以刺激数千个突触前位置。本文综述了光刺激技术，概述了实施该技术所需的仪器设备，并讨论了对光刺激衍生数据的解释。还考虑了从绘制哺乳动物视觉皮层的回路到确定单个神经元上受体分布等几个应用实例。尽管仍处于早期阶段，但扫描激光光刺激为神经科学家提供了一个强大的工具，用于确定局部脑回路的组织和功能。
