Auditory processing of communication calls in interacting bats.

There is strong evidence that social context plays a role in the processing of acoustic signals. Yet, the circuits and mechanisms that govern this process are still not fully understood. The insectivorous big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, emits a wide array of communication calls, including food-claiming calls, aggressive calls, and appeasement calls. We implemented a competitive foraging task to explore the influence of behavioral context on auditory midbrain responses to conspecific social calls. We recorded neural population responses from the inferior colliculus (IC) of freely interacting bats and analyzed data with respect to social context. Analysis of our neural recordings from the IC shows stronger population responses to individual calls during social events. For the first time, neural recordings from the IC of a copulating bat were obtained. Our results indicate that social context enhances neuronal population responses to social vocalizations in the bat IC.

Photoemission electron microscopy for connectomics.

Detailing the physical basis of neural circuits with large-volume serial electron microscopy (EM), 'connectomics', has emerged as an invaluable tool in the neuroscience armamentarium. However, imaging synaptic resolution connectomes is currently limited to either transmission electron microscopy (TEM) or scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Here, we describe a third way, using photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) which illuminates ultra-thin brain slices collected on solid substrates with UV light and images the photoelectron emission pattern with a wide-field electron microscope. PEEM works with existing sample preparations for EM and routinely provides sufficient resolution and contrast to reveal myelinated axons, somata, dendrites, and sub-cellular organelles. Under optimized conditions, PEEM provides synaptic resolution; and simulation and experiments show that PEEM can be transformatively fast, at Gigahertz pixel rates. We conclude that PEEM imaging leverages attractive aspects of SEM and TEM, namely reliable sample collection on robust substrates combined with fast wide-field imaging, and could enable faster data acquisition for next-generation connectomics.

Connectomic analysis of thalamus-driven disinhibition in cortical layer 4.

Sensory signals are transmitted via the thalamus primarily to layer 4 (L4) of the primary sensory cortices. While information about average neuronal connectivity in L4 is available, its detailed higher-order circuit structure is not known. Here, we used three-dimensional electron microscopy for a connectomic analysis of the thalamus-driven inhibitory network in L4. We find that thalamic input drives a subset of interneurons with high specificity, which in turn target excitatory neurons with subtype specificity. These interneurons create a directed disinhibitory network directly driven by the thalamic input. Neuronal activity recordings show that strong synchronous sensory activation yields about 1.5-fold stronger activation of star pyramidal cells than spiny stellates, in line with differential windows of opportunity for activation of excitatory neurons in the thalamus-driven disinhibitory circuit model. With this, we have identified a high degree of specialization of the microcircuitry in L4 of the primary sensory cortex.

Volume electron microscopy reveals age-related circuit remodeling in the auditory brainstem.

The medial nucleus of the trapezoid body (MNTB) is an integral component of the auditory brainstem circuitry involved in sound localization. The giant presynaptic nerve terminal with multiple active zones, the calyx of Held (CH), is a hallmark of this nucleus, which mediates fast and synchronized glutamatergic synaptic transmission. To delineate how these synaptic structures adapt to reduced auditory afferents due to aging, we acquired and reconstructed circuitry-level volumes of mouse MNTB at different ages (3 weeks, 6, 18, and 24 months) using serial block-face electron microscopy. We used C57BL/6J, the most widely inbred mouse strain used for transgenic lines, which displays a type of age-related hearing loss. We found that MNTB neurons reduce in density with age. Surprisingly we observed an average of approximately 10% of poly-innervated MNTB neurons along the mouse lifespan, with prevalence in the low frequency region. Moreover, a tonotopy-dependent heterogeneity in CH morphology was observed in young but not in older mice. In conclusion, our data support the notion that age-related hearing impairments can be in part a direct consequence of several structural alterations and circuit remodeling in the brainstem.

Laser ablation of the pia mater for insertion of high-density microelectrode arrays in a translational sheep model.

Objective. The safe insertion of high density intracortical electrode arrays has been a long-standing practical challenge for neural interface engineering and applications such as brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). However, the pia mater can be difficult to penetrate and causes deformation of underlying cortical tissue during insertion of high-density intracortical arrays. This can lead to neuron damage or failed insertions. The development of a method to ease insertion through the pia mater would represent a significant step toward inserting high density intracortical arrays.Approach. Here we describe a surgical procedure, inspired by laser corneal ablation, that can be used in translational models to thin the pia mater.Main results. We demonstrate that controlled pia removal with laser ablation over a small area of cortex allows for microelectrode arrays to be inserted into the cortex with less force, thus reducing deformation of underlying tissue during placement of the microelectrodes. This procedure allows for insertion of high-density electrode arrays and subsequent acute recordings of spiking neuron activity in sheep cortex. We also show histological and electrophysiological evidence that laser removal of the pia does not acutely affect neuronal viability in the region.Significance. Laser ablation of the pia reduces insertion forces of high-density arrays with minimal to no acute damage to cortical neurons. This approach suggests a promising new path for clinical BCI with high-density microelectrode arrays.

The Argo: a high channel count recording system for neural recording in vivo.

OBJECTIVE: Decoding neural activity has been limited by the lack of tools available to record from large numbers of neurons across multiple cortical regions simultaneously with high temporal fidelity. To this end, we developed the Argo system to record cortical neural activity at high data rates. APPROACH: Here we demonstrate a massively parallel neural recording system based on platinum-iridium microwire electrode arrays bonded to a CMOS voltage amplifier array. The Argo system is the highest channel count in vivo neural recording system, supporting simultaneous recording from 65 536 channels, sampled at 32 kHz and 12-bit resolution. This system was designed for cortical recordings, compatible with both penetrating and surface microelectrodes. MAIN RESULTS: We validated this system through initial bench testing to determine specific gain and noise characteristics of bonded microwires, followed by in-vivo experiments in both rat and sheep cortex. We recorded spiking activity from 791 neurons in rats and surface local field potential activity from over 30 000 channels in sheep. SIGNIFICANCE: These are the largest channel count microwire-based recordings in both rat and sheep. While currently adapted for head-fixed recording, the microwire-CMOS architecture is well suited for clinical translation. Thus, this demonstration helps pave the way for a future high data rate intracortical implant.

Postnatal connectomic development of inhibition in mouse barrel cortex.

Brain circuits in the neocortex develop from diverse types of neurons that migrate and form synapses. Here we quantify the circuit patterns of synaptogenesis for inhibitory interneurons in the developing mouse somatosensory cortex. We studied synaptic innervation of cell bodies, apical dendrites, and axon initial segments using three-dimensional electron microscopy focusing on the first 4 weeks postnatally (postnatal days P5 to P28). We found that innervation of apical dendrites occurs early and specifically: Target preference is already almost at adult levels at P5. Axons innervating cell bodies, on the other hand, gradually acquire specificity from P5 to P9, likely via synaptic overabundance followed by antispecific synapse removal. Chandelier axons show first target preference by P14 but develop full target specificity almost completely by P28, which is consistent with a combination of axon outgrowth and off-target synapse removal. This connectomic developmental profile reveals how inhibitory axons in the mouse cortex establish brain circuitry during development.

Cell-type specific innervation of cortical pyramidal cells at their apical dendrites.

We investigated the synaptic innervation of apical dendrites of cortical pyramidal cells in a region between layers (L) 1 and 2 using 3-D electron microscopy applied to four cortical regions in mouse. We found the relative inhibitory input at the apical dendrite's main bifurcation to be more than 2-fold larger for L2 than L3 and L5 thick-tufted pyramidal cells. Towards the distal tuft dendrites in upper L1, the relative inhibitory input was at least about 2-fold larger for L5 pyramidal cells than for all others. Only L3 pyramidal cells showed homogeneous inhibitory input fraction. The inhibitory-to-excitatory synaptic ratio is thus specific for the types of pyramidal cells. Inhibitory axons preferentially innervated either L2 or L3/5 apical dendrites, but not both. These findings describe connectomic principles for the control of pyramidal cells at their apical dendrites and support differential computational properties of L2, L3 and subtypes of L5 pyramidal cells in cortex.

Dense connectomic reconstruction in layer 4 of the somatosensory cortex.

The dense circuit structure of mammalian cerebral cortex is still unknown. With developments in three-dimensional electron microscopy, the imaging of sizable volumes of neuropil has become possible, but dense reconstruction of connectomes is the limiting step. We reconstructed a volume of ~500,000 cubic micrometers from layer 4 of mouse barrel cortex, ~300 times larger than previous dense reconstructions from the mammalian cerebral cortex. The connectomic data allowed the extraction of inhibitory and excitatory neuron subtypes that were not predictable from geometric information. We quantified connectomic imprints consistent with Hebbian synaptic weight adaptation, which yielded upper bounds for the fraction of the circuit consistent with saturated long-term potentiation. These data establish an approach for the locally dense connectomic phenotyping of neuronal circuitry in the mammalian cortex.

Full reconstruction of large lobula plate tangential cells in Drosophila from a 3D EM dataset.

With the advent of neurogenetic methods, the neural basis of behavior is presently being analyzed in more and more detail. This is particularly true for visually driven behavior of Drosophila melanogaster where cell-specific driver lines exist that, depending on the combination with appropriate effector genes, allow for targeted recording, silencing and optogenetic stimulation of individual cell-types. Together with detailed connectomic data of large parts of the fly optic lobe, this has recently led to much progress in our understanding of the neural circuits underlying local motion detection. However, how such local information is combined by optic flow sensitive large-field neurons is still incompletely understood. Here, we aim to fill this gap by a dense reconstruction of lobula plate tangential cells of the fly lobula plate. These neurons collect input from many hundreds of local motion-sensing T4/T5 neurons and connect them to descending neurons or central brain areas. We confirm all basic features of HS and VS cells as published previously from light microscopy. In addition, we identified the dorsal and the ventral centrifugal horizontal, dCH and vCH cell, as well as three VSlike cells, including their distinct dendritic and axonal projection area.

FluoEM, virtual labeling of axons in three-dimensional electron microscopy data for long-range connectomics.

The labeling and identification of long-range axonal inputs from multiple sources within densely reconstructed electron microscopy (EM) datasets from mammalian brains has been notoriously difficult because of the limited color label space of EM. Here, we report FluoEM for the identification of multi-color fluorescently labeled axons in dense EM data without the need for artificial fiducial marks or chemical label conversion. The approach is based on correlated tissue imaging and computational matching of neurite reconstructions, amounting to a virtual color labeling of axons in dense EM circuit data. We show that the identification of fluorescent light- microscopically (LM) imaged axons in 3D EM data from mouse cortex is faithfully possible as soon as the EM dataset is about 40-50 µm in extent, relying on the unique trajectories of axons in dense mammalian neuropil. The method is exemplified for the identification of long-distance axonal input into layer 1 of the mouse cerebral cortex.

Axonal synapse sorting in medial entorhinal cortex.

Research on neuronal connectivity in the cerebral cortex has focused on the existence and strength of synapses between neurons, and their location on the cell bodies and dendrites of postsynaptic neurons. The synaptic architecture of individual presynaptic axonal trees, however, remains largely unknown. Here we used dense reconstructions from three-dimensional electron microscopy in rats to study the synaptic organization of local presynaptic axons in layer 2 of the medial entorhinal cortex, the site of grid-like spatial representations. We observe path-length-dependent axonal synapse sorting, such that axons of excitatory neurons sequentially target inhibitory neurons followed by excitatory neurons. Connectivity analysis revealed a cellular feedforward inhibition circuit involving wide, myelinated inhibitory axons and dendritic synapse clustering. Simulations show that this high-precision circuit can control the propagation of synchronized activity in the medial entorhinal cortex, which is known for temporally precise discharges.

SynEM, automated synapse detection for connectomics.

Nerve tissue contains a high density of chemical synapses, about 1 per µm3 in the mammalian cerebral cortex. Thus, even for small blocks of nerve tissue, dense connectomic mapping requires the identification of millions to billions of synapses. While the focus of connectomic data analysis has been on neurite reconstruction, synapse detection becomes limiting when datasets grow in size and dense mapping is required. Here, we report SynEM, a method for automated detection of synapses from conventionally en-bloc stained 3D electron microscopy image stacks. The approach is based on a segmentation of the image data and focuses on classifying borders between neuronal processes as synaptic or non-synaptic. SynEM yields 97% precision and recall in binary cortical connectomes with no user interaction. It scales to large volumes of cortical neuropil, plausibly even whole-brain datasets. SynEM removes the burden of manual synapse annotation for large densely mapped connectomes.

webKnossos: efficient online 3D data annotation for connectomics.

We report webKnossos, an in-browser annotation tool for 3D electron microscopic data. webKnossos provides flight mode, a single-view egocentric reconstruction method enabling trained annotator crowds to reconstruct at a speed of 1.5 ± 0.6 mm/h for axons and 2.1 ± 0.9 mm/h for dendrites in 3D electron microscopic data from mammalian cortex. webKnossos accelerates neurite reconstruction for connectomics by 4- to 13-fold compared with current state-of-the-art tools, thus extending the range of connectomes that can realistically be mapped in the future.

SegEM: Efficient Image Analysis for High-Resolution Connectomics.

Progress in electron microscopy-based high-resolution connectomics is limited by data analysis throughput. Here, we present SegEM, a toolset for efficient semi-automated analysis of large-scale fully stained 3D-EM datasets for the reconstruction of neuronal circuits. By combining skeleton reconstructions of neurons with automated volume segmentations, SegEM allows the reconstruction of neuronal circuits at a work hour consumption rate of about 100-fold less than manual analysis and about 10-fold less than existing segmentation tools. SegEM provides a robust classifier selection procedure for finding the best automated image classifier for different types of nerve tissue. We applied these methods to a volume of 44 × 60 × 141 µm(3) SBEM data from mouse retina and a volume of 93 × 60 × 93 µm(3) from mouse cortex, and performed exemplary synaptic circuit reconstruction. SegEM resolves the tradeoff between synapse detection and semi-automated reconstruction performance in high-resolution connectomics and makes efficient circuit reconstruction in fully-stained EM datasets a ready-to-use technique for neuroscience.