NINscope, a versatile miniscope for multi-region circuit investigations

Andres de Groot, Bastijn Jg van den Boom, Romano M. van Genderen, Joris Coppens, John van Veldhuijzen, Joop Bos, Hugo Hoedemaker, Mario Negrello, Ingo Willuhn, Chris I. De Zeeuw, Tycho M. Hoogland

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    90 Citations (Scopus)
    93 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Miniaturized fluorescence microscopes (miniscopes) have been instrumental to monitor neural signals during unrestrained behavior and their open-source versions have made them affordable. Often, the footprint and weight of open-source miniscopes is sacrificed for added functionality. Here, we present NINscope: a light-weight miniscope with a small footprint that integrates a high-sensitivity image sensor, an inertial measurement unit and an LED driver for an external optogenetic probe. We use it to perform the first concurrent cellular resolution recordings from cerebellum and cerebral cortex in unrestrained mice, demonstrate its optogenetic stimulation capabilities to examine cerebello-cerebral or cortico-striatal connectivity, and replicate findings of action encoding in dorsal striatum. In combination with cross-platform acquisition and control software, our miniscope is a versatile addition to the expanding tool chest of open-source miniscopes that will increase access to multi-region circuit investigations during unrestrained behavior.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article numbere49987
    JournaleLife
    Volume9
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2020

    Keywords

    • cerebellum
    • cerebral cortex
    • imaging
    • miniscope
    • mouse
    • neuroscience
    • striatum

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