Biology subjects

Gonzales, B. J.

Publications and source records attributed to Gonzales, B. J..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2023

Striatal calcium transients detected by fiber photometry propagate to axons

ARISING FROM: A. Legaria et al., Nature Neuroscience https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-022-01152-z (2022). Calcium fiber photometry is a popular technique for recording the activity of neuronal populations defined by their gene expression or connectivity. In a recent study, Legaria et al., present evidence that the calcium signal recorded with fiber photometry primarily reports local fluctuations in neuropil Ca2+, rather than somatic Ca2+ influx corresponding to neural firing, as has been assumed by the field. This raises the question of whether fiber photometry transients are a valid measure of the propagation of information from neural soma to their axons. We addressed this question directly, recording coincident activity from both the somato-dendritic region and downstream axons of striatal neural populations. Our findings demonstrate that calcium events are reliably propagated to axons, supporting the interpretation that these events reflect neuronal firing.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Egr2 induction in Drd1+ ensembles of the ventrolateral striatum supports the development of cocaine reward

Drug addiction develops due to brain-wide plasticity within neuronal ensembles, mediated by dynamic gene expression. Though the most common approach to identify such ensembles relies on immediate early gene expression, little is known of how the activity of these genes is linked to modified behavior observed following repeated drug exposure. To address this gap, we present a broad-to-specific approach, beginning with a comprehensive investigation of brain-wide cocaine-driven gene expression, through the description of dynamic spatial patterns of gene induction in subregions of the striatum, and finally address functionality of region-specific gene induction in the development of cocaine preference. Our findings reveal differential cell-type specific dynamic transcriptional recruitment patterns within two subdomains of the dorsal striatum following repeated cocaine exposure. Furthermore, we demonstrate that induction of the IEG Egr2 in the ventrolateral striatum, as well as the cells within which it is expressed, are required for the development of cocaine seeking. Impact statementVLS ensembles are dynamically recruited by cocaine experiences to mediate cocaine reward.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

Salient Experiences are Represented by Unique Transcriptional Signatures in the Brain

Inducible transcription is essential for consolidation of salient experiences into long-term memory. However, the question of whether inducible transcription relays information representing the identity of the experience being encoded, has not been explored. To this end, we have analyzed transcription across multiple brain regions, induced by a variety of rewarding and aversive experiences. Our results define robust transcriptional signatures uniquely characterizing individual salient experiences. A subset of these induced transcriptional markers suffice for near-perfect decoding of the identity of recent experiences at the level of individual mice. Furthermore, experiences with shared attributes display commonalities in their transcriptional representation, exemplified in the representation of valence, habituation and reinforcement. Taken together, our results demonstrate the existence of a neural transcriptional code that represents the encoding of experiences in the mouse brain. This code is comprised of distinct transcriptional signatures that correlate to the affective attributes of the experiences that are being encoded.

neuroscience↗