Guide to transcranial imaging of sound-evoked activity in the auditory cortex of GCAMP6s mice in vivo

Abstract

Transcranial in vivo imaging of rodent cortical activity during sensory events is a fast, minimally invasive and reliable way to measure the nature and location of neuronal responses, allowing the creation of topographic maps and assessment of how the maps change over different time scales. In this chapter, we describe a straightforward and robust method of transcranial in vivo imaging of auditory cortical responses after sound stimulation in C57BL6J GCaMP6s transgenic mice. We aim to describe to the reader some theoretical background of this imaging method and, most importantly, practical guidelines on how to apply it in their own laboratory setting, including the necessary equipment along with common qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis. Although this chapter specifically focuses on the use of C57BL6J-Tg(Thy1-GCaMP6s)GP4.3 transgenic mouse line in auditory research, the method can be further modified for visual, motor, and somatosensory research, as well as the areas of clinical and translational neuroscience for studying mouse models of neurological diseases.