Multi-channel infrared stimulation on mesoscale cortical units with ultra-high field 7T MRI

COEX 

The cortex of primate is organized by submillimeter functional domains. But little is known about how these coordinated units form a highly organized network on a brain-wide scale. Recently, the use of holographic optogenetics to target multiple brain areas opens up the possibility to modulate cortical information flow with diverse spatiotemporal patterns. Here we develop another patterned illumination method by infrared neural stimulation (INS), which is capable of producing a spatially focal stimulation via heat transients. This effective field is smaller than the column width in cat (~700µm). Combined with BOLD functional MRI in ultrahigh field, coordinated connectivity of the whole-brain can be mapped and further manipulated with patterns.