Neurophysiological and Behavioral Analysis in Xenopus

Because of its resilience to hypoxia and trauma, the frog has long been a favored preparation of neurophysiologists. Its use has led to the discovery of many fundamental properties of neurons and neural circuits. Neurophysiologists were originally attracted to Xenopus embryos, tadpoles, and frogs because of their ready availability, their external development, and the anatomical accessibility and relatively simple neural circuitry of the Xenopus visual, locomotory, and vocalization systems. Nowadays, the sequencing of Xenopus genomes and the panoply of tools for manipulating gene expression have created new opportunities for neurophysiologists to address the molecular underpinnings of how neurons generate behaviors in a vertebrate. Here, we introduce protocols for harnessing the power of Xenopus for performing electrophysiological studies of neural circuitry in the developing optic tectum and spinal cord, as well as in vocalization, and for studying the ontogeny of locomotory behavior.