美国国家心理健康研究所Arash Afraz团队开发出用于灵长类动物行为光遗传学的长期植入式LED阵列。2021年8月30日，《自然—方法学》杂志在线发表了这项成果。

为了解决大脑中行为光遗传学的难题，研究人员开发了Opto-Array，一个长期植入的发光二极管阵列，可用于高通量的光遗传学扰动。研究人员证明，在Opto-Array的帮助下，猕猴初级视觉皮层的光遗传学沉默会在亮度辨别任务中产生可靠的视网膜视觉障碍。研究人员分别证实，Opto-Array的照明会导致局部神经沉默，而且行为效应不是由于组织加热造成的。这些结果证明了Opto-Array在大脑中行为光遗传学应用的有效性。

据了解，光遗传学方法已被广泛用于啮齿类动物的大脑，但对于非人类灵长类动物，如猕猴，这种动物模型有一个大的大脑，表达复杂的感觉、运动和认知行为，其发展仍然相对不足。

附：英文原文

Title: Chronically implantable LED arrays for behavioral optogenetics in primates

Author: Rajalingham, Rishi, Sorenson, Michael, Azadi, Reza, Bohn, Simon, DiCarlo, James J., Afraz, Arash

Issue&Volume: 2021-08-30

Abstract: Optogenetic methods have been widely used in rodent brains, but remain relatively under-developed for nonhuman primates such as rhesus macaques, an animal model with a large brain expressing sophisticated sensory, motor and cognitive behaviors. To address challenges in behavioral optogenetics in large brains, we developed Opto-Array, a chronically implantable array of light-emitting diodes for high-throughput optogenetic perturbation. We demonstrated that optogenetic silencing in the macaque primary visual cortex with the help of the Opto-Array results in reliable retinotopic visual deficits in a luminance discrimination task. We separately confirmed that Opto-Array illumination results in local neural silencing, and that behavioral effects are not due to tissue heating. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the Opto-Array for behavioral optogenetic applications in large brains. An implantable array of LEDs called the Opto-Array facilitates optogenetic manipulations in the nonhuman primate brain.

DOI: 10.1038/s41592-021-01238-9

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-021-01238-9