title: Multiphoton imaging approaches for studying striatal dendritic excitability.
abstract: As the main input nucleus to the basal ganglia, the striatum is responsible for receiving and integrating highly convergent afferents to ultimately guide action selection and movement initiation. Although the majority of this synaptic integration occurs in the dendrites of striatal projection neurons (SPNs), their thin diameter makes them inaccessible with traditional recording electrodes. Recent advances in optical imaging technologies have allowed us and others to start lifting the veil on the mechanisms governing synaptic integration in the striatum by enabling direct dendritic measurements and manipulations. Here we describe how our lab has approached combining 2-photon imaging and photolysis with electrophysiological recordings to study dendritic excitability and synaptic integration in the striatum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 303 E. Superior, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA, j-plotkin@northwestern.edu.
authors.forename: Joshua L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Plotkin
authors.forename: D James
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Surmeier
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000502:physiology*; D003712:Dendrites / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D004594:Electrophysiology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007834:Lasers; D008853:Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D061848:Optical Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D010782:Photolysis; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology*; D009435:Synaptic Transmission
chemical_list: D018698:Glutamic Acid; D002118:Calcium