Holographic mesoscope reads, writes from different cortical regions simultaneously

“It’s the first time we’ve been able to activate specific ensembles in one cortical area and map the functional impacts across three, five or even six other cortical areas,” says study investigator Hillel Adesnik , professor of neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley. “And there were some interesting results.”

In one experiment, for instance, the researchers trained a machine-learning classifier to discriminate between activity patterns evoked in the visual cortex of mice while they viewed four different orientations of alternating black and white parallel lines. After identifying neurons in visual area V1 tuned to each of the four orientations, the team stimulated groups of these cells and showed that the classifier could categorize downstream activity as the correct orientation significantly above chance. This suggests the platform can write activation patterns that transmit visually relevant information between regions.