Recordings from human myenteric neurons using voltage-sensitive dyes.

Voltage-sensitive dye (VSD) imaging became a powerful tool to detect neural activity in the enteric nervous system, including its routine use in submucous neurons in freshly dissected human tissue. However, VSD imaging of human myenteric neurons remained a challenge because of limited visibility of the ganglia and dye accessibility. We describe a protocol to apply VSD for recordings of human myenteric neurons in freshly dissected tissue and myenteric neurons in primary cultures.

Physiologically evoked neuronal current MRI in a bloodless turtle brain: detectable or not?

Contradictory reports regarding the detection of neuronal currents have left the feasibility of neuronal current MRI (ncMRI) an open question. Most previous ncMRI studies in human subjects are suspect due to their inability to separate or eliminate hemodynamic effects. In this study, we used a bloodless turtle brain preparation that eliminates hemodynamic effects, to explore the feasibility of detecting visually-evoked ncMRI signals at 9.

Modeling oxygen effects in tissue-preparation neuronal-current MRI.

Tissue-preparation neuronal-current MRI (ncMRI) was recently developed to directly detect neuronal activity without hemodynamic contamination. However, as a paramagnetic substance, the oxygen molecules present in the tissue may also alter the ncMRI signal through relaxivity and susceptibility effects. To study the effects of oxygen on the ncMRI signal and estimate their impact on tissue-preparation experiments, oxygen-induced MRI signal changes were formulated as a function of oxygen concentration (OC) of gas, oxygen consumption rate, and imaging parameters.

Extracting wave structure from biological data with application to responses in turtle visual cortex.

Waves have long been thought to be a fundamental mechanism for communicating information within a medium and are widely observed in biological systems. However, a quantitative analysis of biological waves is confounded by the variability and complexity of the response. This paper proposes a robust technique for extracting wave structure from experimental data by calculating "wave subspaces" from the KL decomposition of the data set.

High-speed VSD imaging of visually evoked cortical waves: decomposition into intra- and intercortical wave motions.

In the pond turtle, Pseudemys scripta elegans, visually evoked cortical waves propagate at different velocities within the primary visual area compared with waves that pass into the secondary visual area. In an effort to separate intra- and intercortical wave motions, movies of visually evoked cortical waves recorded by high-speed voltage-sensitive dye (VSD) imaging were subjected to Karhunen-Loéve (KL) decomposition. This procedure decomposes the VSD movies into a series of basis images that capture different spatial patterns of coherent activity.