An optimized protocol for assessing changes in mouse whole-brain activity using opto-fMRI
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Updated: Aug 25, 2025
Optogenetic Functional MRI
Published on: April 19, 2016
Christina Grimm1, Nicole Wenderoth2, Valerio Zerbi1
1Neural Control of Movement Lab, Department of Health Sciences and Technology (D-HEST), ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, ETH Zurich and University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland; Neuro-X Institute, School of Engineering (STI), EPFL, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in mouse brain, paired with spatially and temporally defined manipulations, offers a powerful tool to causally explain the effect of specific neuronal activity on brain network dynamics. Here, we present an optimized protocol to measure cell-type-specific contributions to changes in whole-brain dynamics in mice using optogenetics (opto)-fMRI. This protocol details the injection of ChR2-expressing AAV, the implantation of optical fiber, the steps to perform opto-BOLD (blood-oxygenation-level-dependent) fMRI recording, and data analysis. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Grimm et al. (2021).
