Neuro-X Seminar: A whole-brain approach to investigating mouse behavior using functional ultrasound imaging

Traditional approaches to addressing systems neuroscience questions involve studying the role of individual brain regions in animal behavior. However, behavior is influenced by widely distributed brain networks and therefore benefits from large scale neural recordings. Functional ultrasound (fUS) is a novel imaging technique that enables brain-wide recordings in behaving mice and can address this need. In this talk I will first present recent efforts aimed at advancing the integration of fUS into the systems neuroscience toolbox. This work includes the development of a novel cranial window implant that allows for chronic whole-brain fUS recordings as well as the combination of fUS with optogenetic manipulations in awake head-fixed mice. I will then discuss how pairing these advancements in fUS technology with a recently developed facial expression classification method allows us to describe the neural correlates of behavior states in mice at the whole-brain level.