title: Analysis of the dynamics of temporal relationships of neural activities using optical imaging data.
abstract: The temporal relationship between the activities of neurons in biological neural systems is critically important for the correct delivery of the functionality of these systems. Fine measurement of temporal relationships of neural activities using micro-electrodes is possible but this approach is very limited due to spatial constraints in the context of physiologically valid settings of neural systems. Optical imaging with voltage-sensitive dyes or calcium dyes can provide data about the activity patterns of many neurons in physiologically valid settings, but the data is relatively noisy. Here we propose a numerical methodology for the analysis of optical neuro-imaging data that allows robust analysis of the dynamics of temporal relationships of neural activities. We provide a detailed description of the methodology and we also assess its robustness. The proposed methodology is applied to analyse the relationship between the activity patterns of PY neurons in the crab stomatogastric ganglion. We show for the first time in a physiologically valid setting that as expected on the basis of earlier results of single neuron recordings exposure to dopamine de-synchronises the activity of these neurons. We also discuss the wider implications and application of the proposed methodology.
authors: Bioinformatics Support Unit, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK. jannetta.steyn@newcastle.ac.uk.
authors: Jannetta S
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0231-9897
authors: JS
authors: Steyn
authors: School of Computing and Mathematics, Keele University, Keele, ST5 5BG, UK.
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Andras
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003386:Brachyura; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009474:Neurons; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D014796:Visual Perception
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes
keywords: Computational analysis; Neuron-scale imaging; Stomatogastric ganglion; Synchronisation; Voltage sensitive dye