Optogenetic Modulation of Locomotor Activity on Free-Behaving Rats

The technology of optogenetics provides a new method to modulate neural activity with spatial specificity and millisecond-temporal scale. This nonelectrical modulation method also gives chance for simultaneous electrophysiological recording during stimulations. Here, we describe our locomotor activity modulation on free-behaving rats using optogenetic techniques. The target sites of the rat brain were dorsal periaqueductal gray (dPAG) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) for the modulation of defensive and reward behaviors, respectively.