Experience directs the instability of neuronal tuning for critical period plasticity in mouse visual cortex.

Brief monocular deprivation during a developmental critical period, but not thereafter, alters the receptive field properties (tuning) of neurons in visual cortex, but the characteristics of neural circuitry that permit this experience-dependent plasticity are largely unknown. We performed repeated calcium imaging at neuronal resolution to track the tuning properties of populations of excitatory layer 2/3 neurons in mouse visual cortex during or after the critical period, as well as in mutant mice that sustain critical-period plasticity as adults. The instability of tuning for populations of neurons was greater in juvenile mice and adult mutant mice.

Is germline genome-editing person-affecting or identity-affecting, and does it matter?

Writers have debated whether germline genome-editing is person-affecting or identity-affecting. The difference is thought to be ethically relevant to whether we should choose genome-editing or choose preimplantation genetic diagnosis and embryo selection, when seeking to prevent or produce bad conditions (e.g.

Longitudinal imaging of the taste bud in vivo with two-photon laser scanning microscopy.

Taste bud cells in the tongue transduce taste information from chemicals in food and transmit this information to gustatory neurons in the geniculate ganglion that innervate taste buds. The peripheral taste system is a dynamic environment where taste bud cells are continuously replaced, but further understanding of this phenomenon has been limited by the inability to directly observe this process. To overcome this challenge, we combined chronic in vivo two-photon laser scanning microscopy with genetic labeling of gustatory neurons and taste buds to observe how cells within the taste bud change over time.

Protocol for Xenium spatial transcriptomics studies using fixed frozen mouse brain sections.

Here, we present a protocol for Xenium spatial transcriptomics studies using fixed frozen mouse brain sections. We describe steps for intracardiac perfusion, cryosectioning, and floating section mounting of brain sections, which enable runs on the Xenium analyzer and data delivery. We demonstrate that, in addition to the 10× Genomics-validated formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) and fresh frozen sections, fixed frozen thin brain sections are compatible with the Xenium platform and provide excellent imaging and quantification results for spatially resolved gene expression.