Surgical instruments information.

Miniature microscopy (Miniscope) has become one of the most popular and valuable neuroscience tools in the last decade. Miniscope in vivo calcium imaging during freely moving behavior has led to a number of transformative discoveries about neural coding across a large range of behaviors. The UCLA Miniscope Project is an open-source miniaturized microscopy platform that has greatly benefited the neuroscience community and led to the release of a number of different miniaturized microscopes with extended capabilities. While researchers can record from essentially any brain region through a cranial window or a gradient index of refraction (GRIN) lens, there is still a need for comprehensive protocols which describe detailed surgical procedures for successful miniaturized microscopy applications across different brain regions. Here, we provide step-by-step surgical procedures for implantation of GRIN lenses to record from a number of different brain regions including subregions in the medial prefrontal cortex (PrL, IL, DP), subregions in the hippocampus (dCA1, CA2 and vCA1), and the ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens, NAc). Moreover, we also provide surgical methods of new multi-brain regions imaging techniques developed by our group to record bilateral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFCs) or simultaneously record mPFC and NAc. Taken together, this protocol details easy and reproducible techniques for GRIN lens implantation and miniaturized microscopy in multiple structures.

近十年来，微型显微镜（Miniscope）已成为最具影响力与应用价值的神经科学研究工具之一。自由活动动物的微型显微镜在体钙成像技术（Miniscope in vivo calcium imaging），已在多行为范式下的神经编码研究中取得多项突破性进展。加州大学洛杉矶分校迷你显微镜项目（UCLA Miniscope Project）作为开源微型显微镜平台，极大推动了神经科学领域的发展，并推出了多款性能拓展的微型显微镜产品。尽管研究者可通过颅窗或梯度折射率（GRIN）透镜对几乎任意脑区开展记录，但目前仍缺乏覆盖不同脑区、可支撑成功开展微型显微镜成像的标准化详细手术操作方案。本研究提供了针对多个脑区梯度折射率透镜植入的分步手术流程，涉及脑区包括内侧前额叶皮层亚区（PrL、IL、DP）、海马体亚区（dCA1、CA2及vCA1），以及包含伏隔核（NAc）的腹侧纹状体。此外，本方案还涵盖了本团队开发的新型多脑区成像技术的手术方法，可实现双侧内侧前额叶皮层（mPFCs）的同步记录，或同时记录内侧前额叶皮层与伏隔核的神经活动。综上，本操作方案详细阐述了便捷可复现的梯度折射率透镜植入术及多脑区微型显微镜成像技术。