A lamprey striatal brain slice preparation for patch-clamp recordings

Striatum, the input layer of the basal ganglia is important for functions such as the selection of motor behaviour. The lamprey, a lower vertebrate, is particularly well suited as a model system for the control of motor functions as its central nervous system is similar to that of higher vertebrates and exhibits a lower level of complexity. Therefore, studies in lamprey preparations enable cellular and synaptic mechanisms to be correlated with behaviour. The lamprey brain slice preparation presented has been developed to study the striatal microcircuits and input/output systems with patch-clamp recordings. The method involves dissection of the central nervous system, brain slice preparation, identification of the striatum, visual identification of striatal neurons and patch-clamp recordings. By combining studies in the slice preparation presented here and other lamprey preparations such as the semi-intact lamprey, we will be able to correlate striatal mechanisms on the cellular, synaptic and network levels with striatal output and motor behaviour. The method can be adapted to produce similar slice preparations from other areas of the lamprey brain.