Spike desensitisation as a mechanism for high-contrast selectivity in retinal ganglion cells.

In the vertebrate retina, several dozens of parallel channels relay information about the visual world to the brain. These channels are represented by the different types of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), whose responses are rendered selective for distinct sets of visual features by various mechanisms. These mechanisms can be roughly grouped into synaptic interactions and cell-intrinsic mechanisms, with the latter including dendritic morphology as well as ion channel complement and distribution. Here, we investigate how strongly ion channel complement can shape RGC output by comparing two mouse RGC types, the well-described ON alpha cell and a little-studied ON cell that is EGFP-labelled in the Igfbp5 mouse line and displays an unusual selectivity for stimuli with high contrast. Using patch-clamp recordings and computational modelling, we show that a higher activation threshold and a pronounced slow inactivation of the voltage-gated Na+ channels contribute to the distinct contrast tuning and transient responses in ON Igfbp5 RGCs, respectively. In contrast, such a mechanism could not be observed in ON alpha cells. This study provides an example for the powerful role that the last stage of retinal processing can play in shaping RGC responses.

Center-surround interactions underlie bipolar cell motion sensitivity in the mouse retina.

Motion sensing is a critical aspect of vision. We studied the representation of motion in mouse retinal bipolar cells and found that some bipolar cells are radially direction selective, preferring the origin of small object motion trajectories. Using a glutamate sensor, we directly observed bipolar cells synaptic output and found that there are radial direction selective and non-selective bipolar cell types, the majority being selective, and that radial direction selectivity relies on properties of the center-surround receptive field. We used these bipolar cell receptive fields along with connectomics to design biophysical models of downstream cells. The models and additional experiments demonstrated that bipolar cells pass radial direction selective excitation to starburst amacrine cells, which contributes to their directional tuning. As bipolar cells provide excitation to most amacrine and ganglion cells, their radial direction selectivity may contribute to motion processing throughout the visual system.

Sensitivity Characterization of Cascaded Long-Period Gratings Operating near the Phase-Matching Turning Point.

We characterized a cascaded long-period gratings (LPGs)-based sensor that was operating at the phase-matching turning point (PMTP). The cascaded LPGs constructed an in-fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), which exhibited a series of high-quality-factor (Q) narrow-bandwidth resonance peaks. As the LPG operated at the PMTP, the proposed sensor showed an ultrahigh refractive index (RI) and temperature sensitivity, and high measurement precision. In this study, we took an in-depth look at the effects of grating separation on Q-factor and sensitivity. The results showed that the sensitivity to the surrounding refractive index (SRI) reached 4741.5 nm/RIU at 1.4255 and 2138 nm/RIU, over the range of 1.335-1.373. In addition, the temperature sensitivity was around 4.84 nm/°C. With a 0.02 nm wavelength resolution, the RI and temperature sensing limits were 9.3 × 10-6 RIU and 5.5 × 10-3 °C.

Neural circuits in the mouse retina support color vision in the upper visual field.

Color vision is essential for an animal's survival. It starts in the retina, where signals from different photoreceptor types are locally compared by neural circuits. Mice, like most mammals, are dichromatic with two cone types. They can discriminate colors only in their upper visual field. In the corresponding ventral retina, however, most cones display the same spectral preference, thereby presumably impairing spectral comparisons. In this study, we systematically investigated the retinal circuits underlying mouse color vision by recording light responses from cones, bipolar and ganglion cells. Surprisingly, most color-opponent cells are located in the ventral retina, with rod photoreceptors likely being involved. Here, the complexity of chromatic processing increases from cones towards the retinal output, where non-linear center-surround interactions create specific color-opponent output channels to the brain. This suggests that neural circuits in the mouse retina are tuned to extract color from the upper visual field, aiding robust detection of predators and ensuring the animal's survival.

Type-specific dendritic integration in mouse retinal ganglion cells.

Neural computation relies on the integration of synaptic inputs across a neuron's dendritic arbour. However, it is far from understood how different cell types tune this process to establish cell-type specific computations. Here, using two-photon imaging of dendritic Ca2+ signals, electrical recordings of somatic voltage and biophysical modelling, we demonstrate that four morphologically distinct types of mouse retinal ganglion cells with overlapping excitatory synaptic input (transient Off alpha, transient Off mini, sustained Off, and F-mini Off) exhibit type-specific dendritic integration profiles: in contrast to the other types, dendrites of transient Off alpha cells were spatially independent, with little receptive field overlap. The temporal correlation of dendritic signals varied also extensively, with the highest and lowest correlation in transient Off mini and transient Off alpha cells, respectively. We show that differences between cell types can likely be explained by differences in backpropagation efficiency, arising from the specific combinations of dendritic morphology and ion channel densities.

Liquid crystal-optical phased arrays (LC-OPA)-based optical beam steering with microradian resolution enabled by double gratings.

We demonstrate an optical beam steering setup based on a liquid crystal-optical phased array (LC-OPA) with high angular resolution and low beam divergence, due to the use of double-grating configuration to enhance the corresponding angular resolution of LC-OPA. The introduction of two nonparallel blazed gratings with a special included angle can achieve multiple diffractions for the incident light, leading to the realization of angular compression. Numerical simulation results show the angular compression ratio can be optimized by selecting the appropriate grating constant and the included angle of double-grating. Experimental results verify that the steered angle of the incident light can be compressed so that the angular resolution of the steered beam can correspondingly be improved more than six times. In addition, when the beam is multiply diffracted within the double-grating configuration, the divergence angle becomes smaller as the beam size is enlarged. Therefore, both the microradian steering resolution and the narrow beam divergence can be simultaneously obtained with our proposed setup. The efficiency of the steering where the beam diffracted four times within the double-grating configuration is 80%.

Increased BBB Permeability Enhances Activation of Microglia and Exacerbates Loss of Dendritic Spines After Transient Global Cerebral Ischemia.

Ischemic stroke can induce rapid disruption of blood-brain barrier (BBB). It has been suggested that increased BBB permeability can affect the pathological progression of ischemic tissue. However, the impact of increased BBB permeability on microglial activation and synaptic structures following reperfusion after ischemia remains unclear. In this study, we investigated microglial activation, dendritic damage and plasticity of dendritic spines after increasing BBB permeability following transient global cerebral ischemia in the somatosensory cortices in mice. Bilateral common carotid artery ligation (BCAL) was used to induce transient global cerebral ischemia. Mannitol was used to increase the BBB permeability. Intravital two-photon imaging was performed to image the dendritic structures and BBB extravasation. Microglial morphology was quantitated using a skeletonization analysis method. To evaluate inflammation of cerebral cortex, the mRNA expression levels of integrin alpha M (CD11b), CD68, chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 10 (IP10) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) were measured by fluorescent quantitative PCR. Intravital two-photon imaging revealed that mannitol caused a drastic increase in BBB extravasation during reperfusion after transient global ischemia. Increased BBB permeability induced by mannitol had no significant effect on inflammation and dendritic spines in healthy mice but triggered a marked de-ramification of microglia; importantly, in ischemic animals, mannitol accelerated de-ramification of microglia and aggravated inflammation at 3 h but not at 3 days following reperfusion after ischemia. Although mannitol did not cause significant change in the percentage of blebbed dendrites and did not affect the reversible recovery of the dendritic structures, excessive extravasation was accompanied with significant decrease in spine formation and increase in spine elimination during reperfusion in ischemic mice. These findings suggest that increased BBB permeability induced by mannitol can lead to acute activation of microglia and cause excessive loss of dendritic spines after transient global cerebral ischemia.

TDM interrogation of intensity-modulated USFBGs network based on multichannel lasers.

We report a large-scale multi-channel fiber sensing network, where ultra-short FBGs (USFBGs) instead of conventional narrow-band ultra-weak FBGs are used as the sensors. In the time division multiplexing scheme of the network, each grating response is resolved as three adjacent discrete peaks. The central wavelengths of USFBGs are tracked with the differential detection, which is achieved by calculating the peak-to-peak ratio of two maximum peaks. Compared with previous large-scale hybrid multiplexing sensing networks (e.g., WDM/TDM) which typically have relatively low interrogation speed and very high complexity, the proposed system can achieve interrogation of all channel sensors through very fast and simple intensity measurements with a broad dynamic range. A proof-of-concept experiment with twenty USFBGs, at two wavelength channels, was performed and a fast static strain measurements were demonstrated, with a high average sensitivity of ~0.54dB/µÆ and wide dynamic range of over ~3000µÆ. The channel to channel switching time was 10ms and total network interrogation time was 50ms.

Transient global cerebral ischemia induces rapid and sustained reorganization of synaptic structures.

Ischemia can cause rapid neuronal damage. Previous studies have suggested that synaptic structures and cortical functions can be rescued if therapeutic interventions are applied in time, but the structural basis for this resilience remains incompletely understood. Here, we investigated the restoration of synaptic structures and postischemic plasticity of dendritic spines in the somatosensory cortices of mice by taking advantage of a reversible global cerebral ischemia model. Intravital two-photon imaging revealed that although dendritic structures were rapidly distorted after global ischemia, only a small percentage of spines were actually lost after transient ischemia. Electron microscopy indicated that most presynaptic electron-dense structures were still apposed to postsynaptic densities, and that the majority of disrupted synaptic structures were rapidly reinstated following reperfusion after transient ischemia. Repeated imaging suggested that restored dendrites survived the initial ischemia -reperfusion challenge. Importantly, spines on the restored dendrites underwent a rapid and sustained structural reorganization following transient ischemia. These findings suggested that disrupted synapses during transient ischemia could be rapidly restored after ischemia/reperfusion, and that restored dendritic structures remained plastic to rebuild the cortical network.

Ultra-short FBG based distributed sensing using shifted optical Gaussian filters and microwave-network analysis.

Ultrashort fiber Bragg gratings (US-FBGs) have significant potential as weak grating sensors for distributed sensing, but the exploitation have been limited by their inherent broad spectra that are undesirable for most traditional wavelength measurements. To address this, we have recently introduced a new interrogation concept using shifted optical Gaussian filters (SOGF) which is well suitable for US-FBG measurements. Here, we apply it to demonstrate, for the first time, an US-FBG-based self-referencing distributed optical sensing technique, with the advantages of adjustable sensitivity and range, high-speed and wide-range (potentially >14000 µÎµ) intensity-based detection, and resistance to disturbance by nonuniform parameter distribution. The entire system is essentially based on a microwave network, which incorporates the SOGF with a fiber delay-line between the two arms. Differential detections of the cascaded US-FBGs are performed individually in the network time-domain response which can be obtained by analyzing its complex frequency response. Experimental results are presented and discussed using eight cascaded US-FBGs. A comprehensive numerical analysis is also conducted to assess the system performance, which shows that the use of US-FBGs instead of conventional weak FBGs could significantly improve the power budget and capacity of the distributed sensing system while maintaining the crosstalk level and intensity decay rate, providing a promising route for future sensing applications.

Detection of biogenic amines in C57BL/6 mice brain by capillary electrophoresis electrokinetic supercharging.

Ischemic stroke is caused when blood flow to the brain is stopped and is a major cause of death and long term disability across the globe. Excessive release of neurotransmitters is triggered in the brain by ischemia that mediates neuronal damage and causes ischemic injury. In this study, a simple, sensitive, and on-line preconcentration capillary electrophoresis method based on electrokinetic supercharging (EKS) was developed for the determination of the biogenic amines including dopamine (DA), epinephrine (E), and norepinephrine (NE) in C57BL/6 mice brain. Under the optimized conditions, the analytes were concentrated and detected within 10 min. The detection limits for the analytes ranged from 0.42 to 0.57 ng mL(-1) for a mice brain matrix. With the proposed method, the analyses of three neurochemical amines in C57BL/6 mice brain tissue during cerebral ischemic/reperfusion had been performed successfully.

Static/dynamic strain sensing applications by monitoring the correlation peak from optical wideband chaos.

We present a new sensing demodulation approach by monitoring the amplitude changes of correlation peak through using optical wideband chaos. For the static strain sensing, the reflection intensity of optical wideband chaos can be modulated by the strain induced wavelength spacing between the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) device and the sensing grating. Thus, the relative amplitude change (RAC) of correlation peak is mainly determined by the change of chaotic reflection intensity. For the dynamic strain sensing, the reflection intensity of optical wideband chaos can be modulated by the fast fluctuant evanescent wave on a section of no-core fiber (NCF). Thus, the response from correlation peak's RAC is mainly according to the dynamic strain frequency. The experimental measurements show that a high strain sensing sensitivity of 7.04*10-3 RAC/µÎµ is achieved within the measurement range of 900 µÎµ during the static strain test. While in the dynamic test, the demodulation can detect the vibration frequency of 6 kHz located at 6 km long. This demodulation method can simultaneously achieve static/dynamic sensing and precisely locating the fiber break point with the high accuracy of several centimeters, making it very easy for network maintenance.