Summary: The OpenScope program is investigating neural activity through four new projects, exploring topics such as the effects of psilocybin, motion perception, visual texture recognition and subtle changes in appearance.
Using advanced imaging techniques in mice, researchers aim to understand how the brain processes these complex functions. The program provides global access to neuroscience research data. The findings could lead to advances in the understanding and treatment of brain disorders.
Key facts:
- Psychedelic effects: Studying how psilocybin affects brain activity at a cellular level.
- Visual perception: Investigating how the brain processes motion and texture recognition.
- Open Science: OpenScope provides global access to the latest neuroscience research data.
Source: Allen Institute
How do neurons react to magic mushrooms? What happens in the brain when we see movement, or when we recognize grain patterns in a piece of wood? How does our brain track subtle changes in the appearance of our friends over time?
The Allen Institute has launched four projects to investigate these questions through OpenScope, a collaborative neuroscience observatory. Just as astronomers use several well-equipped observatories to study the universe, the OpenScope program allows neuroscientists around the world to propose and run experiments in the Allen Brain Observatory pipeline.
All research is freely available to anyone addressing open questions in neural activity in health and disease.
Now in its 6th year, OpenScope aims to “produce a new model in neuroscience,” said Jérôme Lecoq, Ph.D., associate investigator at the Allen Institute.
“Our platform improves data acquisition and global sharing, while empowering individual laboratories to use it for their unique scientific research,” said Lecoq, who co-directs OpenScope with Christof Koch.
“We’re trying to combine the best of both worlds: focused questions tackled by passionate teams and a sophisticated platform driven by experienced experimentalists. This is our vision for the future of neuroscience.”
Psychedelic Science
One of this year’s OpenScope projects will explore how psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in “magic mushrooms,” changes brain activity at a cellular level. This compound, known to induce intense psychedelic experiences in humans, will be used to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying altered cognition and perception.
Using advanced recording techniques in mice, scientists will observe how neurons communicate differently under the influence of psilocybin. They will also explore how these changes may affect the brain’s ability to process and predict sensory information, which is crucial to understanding how perception is constructed.
“Our interest in these compounds goes beyond their potential clinical applications,” said Roberto de Filippo, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at Berlin’s Humboldt University.
“We believe that uncovering the biological mechanisms underlying their effects can provide fundamental insights into the processes that regulate perception, cognition and consciousness.”
This project is being led by de Filippo; Torben Ott, Ph.D., of the Humboldt University of Berlin; and Dietmar Schmitz, Ph.D, of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
How the past subtly shapes our worldview
We often overlook the gradual changes in the people we see regularly, noticing the differences only when we see an old photo or reunite with friends after a long time. Although these changes are almost imperceptible, our brains constantly update our memories with these details.
A 2024 OpenScope project aims to uncover the neural underpinnings of these updates. Using the Allen Brain Observatory platform, researchers will analyze brain activity in mice to understand how the brain’s visual system responds to changes over time.
Traditionally, neuroscientists thought that the visual system only processed incoming sensory information. But recent findings suggest that this system also archives visual memories and uses them to predict what we see next.
“We want to understand how such memories affect the perception of real-world scenes and what role different brain areas play in this process,” said Yaniv Ziv, Ph.D., professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
“Understanding this, we aim to find out whether these memories influence how flexible or rigid our visual processing is. For example, if we’ve seen something similar before, does that make our brain more or less likely to adapt to the new visual information?”
This project is being led by Ziv; Daniel Deitch; Alon Rubin, Ph.D.; and Itay Talpir, all at the Weizmann Institute of Science
Deciphering how the brain perceives movement
How does the brain recognize objects that move around us? This OpenScope 2024 project aims to demystify this fundamental process by studying motion perception in the visual cortex of mice. While previous studies have identified brain regions that respond to different types of movement, the underlying neural circuitry remains poorly understood.
This project will use microscopy to simultaneously observe the activity of many neurons over several weeks and in different parts of the visual cortex.
The team hopes to characterize the neuronal representation of movement across brain regions and cell types and understand the specific circuits that support them. Insights from this work may have broader implications, as the same cell types and circuits are found throughout the cortex.
“If we can understand how these circuits process information in the visual system, there is a good chance that the same principles apply throughout the brain,” said Julia Veit, Ph.D., professor at the University of Freiburg.
This project is being led by Veit; Henning Sprekeler, Ph.D., of the Technical University of Berlin; and Yael Oran, Ph.D., of the University of Freiburg.
Looking at the patterns around us
Our brains instantly recognize countless complex visual textures around us, from the intricate patterns on a butterfly’s wings to the pattern of wood grain. But how does it accomplish this remarkable feat of visual perception?
In this OpenScope project, mice will be trained to distinguish textures while their neuronal activity is monitored in the visual cortex, linking neural responses to perception.
The main goals are to determine how certain textures are easily recognized while others present a challenge, and to map how different brain regions interact to transform visual inputs into coherent representations that guide behavior.
These findings may reveal fundamental principles of how the brain derives understanding from our richly patterned visual world, the researchers said. But the scale and complexity of the research requires tools and resources beyond those in a typical laboratory setting.
“Using the Allen Brain Observatory will not only increase the reach and scope of our project several times, but also allow us to compare and contextualize with all the other Open Science projects they have led in the last decade ,” said Federico Bolaños. Ph.D., principal data scientist at the University of British Columbia.
“As happened in other fields such as high-energy physics or astronomy, research in systems neuroscience must move from individual laboratories to a larger, interconnected community in which we progress together.”
This project is being led by Bolaños; Timothy Murphy, Ph.D., of the University of British Columbia; and Javier Orlandi, Ph.D., of the University of Calgary.
Funding: The research described in this article was supported by award number U24NS113646 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH and its subsidiary institutes.
About this open science and neuroscience research news
Author: Peter Kim
Source: Allen Institute
Contact: Peter Kim – Allen Institute
Image: Image is credited to Neuroscience News