title: Modified toolbox for optogenetics in the nonhuman primate.
abstract: Attracted by the appealing advantages of optogenetics, many nonhuman primate labs are attempting to incorporate this technique in their experiments. Despite some reported successes by a few groups, many still find it difficult to develop a reliable way to transduce cells in the monkey brain and subsequently monitor light-induced neuronal activity. Here, we describe a methodology that we have developed and successfully deployed on a regular basis with multiple monkeys. All devices and accessories are easy to obtain and results using these have been proven to be highly replicable. We developed the "in-chair" viral injection system and used tapered and thinner fibers for optical stimulation, which significantly improved the efficacy and reduced tissue damage. With these methods, we have successfully transduced cells in multiple monkeys in both deep and shallow cortical areas. We could reliably obtain neural modulation for months after injection, and no light-induced artifacts were observed during recordings. Further experiments using these methods have shown that optogenetic stimulation can be used to bias spatial attention in a visual choice discrimination task in a way comparable to electrical microstimulation, which demonstrates the potential use of our methods in both fundamental research and clinical applications.
authors.affiliation: Brown University , Department of Neuroscience, 185 Meeting Street, Box GL-N, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, United States.
authors.forename: Ji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: Brown University , School of Engineering, 182 Hope Street, Box D, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, United States.
authors.forename: Ilker
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ozden
authors.affiliation: Brown University , Department of Neuroscience, 185 Meeting Street, Box GL-N, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, United States.
authors.forename: Daniel I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Brooks
authors.affiliation: Brown University , Department of Neuroscience, 185 Meeting Street, Box GL-N, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, United States.
authors.forename: Fabien
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.affiliation: Brown University , School of Engineering, 182 Hope Street, Box D, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, United States.
authors.forename: Travis
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: May
authors.affiliation: Brown University , School of Engineering, 182 Hope Street, Box D, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, United States.
authors.forename: Naubahar S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Agha
authors.affiliation: Brown University , School of Engineering, 182 Hope Street, Box D, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, United States.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Brush
authors.affiliation: Brown University , School of Engineering, 182 Hope Street, Box D, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, United States.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Borton
authors.affiliation: Brown University , School of Engineering, 182 Hope Street, Box D, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, United States ; Brown University , Department of Physics, 182 Hope Street, Box D, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, United States.
authors.forename: Arto V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Nurmikko
authors.affiliation: Brown University , Department of Neuroscience, 185 Meeting Street, Box GL-N, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, United States.
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Sheinberg
keywords: methodology; nonhuman primate; optogenetics