Reconstruction of intracortical whisker-evoked local field potential from electrocorticogram using a model trained for spontaneous activity in the rat barrel cortex.

Electrocorticogram (ECoG) has provided neural information from the cortical surfaces, is widely used in clinical applications, and expected to be useful for brain-machine interfaces. Recent studies have defined the relationship between neural activity in deep layers of the cerebral cortex and ECoG. However, it is still unclear whether this relationship is shared across different brain states.

Quantitative analysis of spontaneous saccade-like rapid eye movements in C57BL/6 mice.

Saccadic eye movement is a rapid shift of eye position to capture an object in the environment. In this study, we will describe the fundamental properties of spontaneously evoked saccade-like rapid eye movement (SLREM) in mice in order to establish the mouse experimental model for studying saccades. Spontaneous SLREM were recorded and analyzed in C57BL/6 mice in a quantitative manner, using high-speed video-oculography at a high temporal resolution (240 frames/s) under head-fixed conditions.

Interleukin (IL)-6, but not IL-1, induction in the brain downstream of cyclooxygenase-2 is essential for the induction of febrile response against peripheral IL-1alpha.

IL-1 is an endogenous pyrogen produced upon inflammation or infection. Previously, we showed that, upon injection with turpentine, IL-1 is induced in the brain in association with the development of fever. The role of endogenous IL-1 in the brain and the signaling cascade to activate thermosensitive neurons, however, remain to be elucidated.

PC-based high-speed video-oculography for measuring rapid eye movements in mice.

We newly developed an infrared video-oculographic system for on-line tracking of the eye position in awake and head-fixed mice, with high temporal resolution (240 Hz). The system consists of a commercially available high-speed CCD camera and an image processing software written in LabVIEW run on IBM-PC with a plug-in video grabber board. This software calculates the center and area of the pupil by fitting circular function to the pupil boundary, and allows robust and stable tracking of the eye position in small animals like mice.