RESUMEN
In this procedure we have included an open-source method for a customized operant chamber optimized for long-term miniature microscope (miniscope) recordings. â¢The miniscope box is designed to function with custom or typical med-associates style accessories (e.g., houselights, levers, etc.).â¢The majority of parts can be directly purchased which minimizes the need for skilled and time-consuming labor.â¢We include designs and estimated pricing for a single box but it is recommended to build these in larger batches to efficiently utilize bulk ordering of certain components.
RESUMEN
Substance use disorder (SUD) is comorbid with devastating health issues, social withdrawal, and isolation. Successful clinical treatments for SUD have used social interventions. Neurons can encode drug cues, and drug cues can trigger relapse. It is important to study how the activity in circuits and embedded cell types that encode drug cues develop in SUD. Exploring shared neurobiology between social interaction (SI) and SUD may explain why humans with access to social treatments still experience relapse. However, circuitry remains poorly characterized due to technical challenges in studying the complicated nature of SI and SUD. To understand the neural correlates of SI and SUD, it is important to: (1) identify cell types and circuits associated with SI and SUD, (2) record and manipulate neural activity encoding drug and social rewards over time, (3) monitor unrestrained animal behavior that allows reliable drug self-administration (SA) and SI. Miniaturized fluorescence microscopes (miniscopes) are ideally suited to meet these requirements. They can be used with gradient index (GRIN) lenses to image from deep brain structures implicated in SUD. Miniscopes can be combined with genetically encoded reporters to extract cell-type specific information. In this mini-review, we explore how miniscopes can be leveraged to uncover neural components of SI and SUD and advance potential therapeutic interventions.
