Resume: The OpenScope program is investigating neural activity through four new projects, exploring topics including the effects of psilocybin, motion perception, visual texture recognition, and subtle changes in appearance.
Using advanced imaging techniques in mice, researchers are trying to understand how the brain processes these complex functions. The program provides global access to neuroscience research data. Findings can lead to advances in understanding and treating brain disorders.
Key Facts:
- Psychedelic effects: Research into the influence of psilocybin on brain activity at the cellular level.
- Visual perception: Research into how the brain processes movement and texture recognition.
- Open science: OpenScope provides global access to cutting-edge neuroscience research data.
Source: Allen Institute
How do neurons respond to mushrooms? What happens in the brain when we see movement, or when we recognize grain patterns in a piece of wood? How do our brains track the subtle changes in our friends’ appearance over time?
The Allen Institute has launched four projects to investigate these questions through OpenScope, a shared neuroscience observatory. Just as astronomers use a few well-equipped observatories to study the universe, the OpenScope program lets neuroscientists around the world propose and lead experiments on the Allen Brain Observatory pipeline.
All research is freely accessible to anyone concerned with open questions about neural activity in health and disease.
Now in its sixth year, OpenScope aims to “pioneer a new paradigm in neuroscience,” said Jérôme Lecoq, Ph.D., a researcher at the Allen Institute.
“Our platform enhances data collection and global sharing, while empowering individual labs to use it for their unique scientific purposes,” said Lecoq, who co-leads OpenScope with Christof Koch.
“We aim to combine the best of both worlds: focused questions tackled by passionate teams, and a cutting-edge platform driven by experienced experimentalists. This is our vision for the future of neuroscience.”
Psychedelic science
One of this year’s OpenScope projects will investigate how psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in “magic mushrooms,” alters brain activity at the cellular level. The compound, known to induce intense psychedelic experiences in humans, will be used to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying altered cognition and perception.
Using advanced recording techniques in mice, scientists will observe how neurons communicate differently under the influence of psilocybin. They will also investigate how those changes may affect the brain’s ability to process and predict sensory information, which is crucial to understanding how perception is constructed.
“Our interest in these compounds goes beyond their potential clinical applications,” said Roberto de Filippo, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at Humboldt University in Berlin.
“We believe that uncovering the biological mechanisms underlying their effects could provide fundamental insights into the processes that govern perception, cognition, and consciousness itself.”
This project is led by Filippo; Torben Ott, Ph.D., of Humboldt University of Berlin; and Dietmar Schmitz, Ph.D, of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
How the past subtly shapes our worldview
We often ignore the gradual changes in people we see regularly, only noticing differences when we look at an old photo or reunite with friends after a long time. Despite the fact that these changes are almost imperceptible, our brains are constantly updating our memories with these details.
A 2024 OpenScope project aims to uncover the neural underpinnings of these updates. Using the Allen Brain Observatory platform, researchers will analyze brain activity in mice to understand how the brain’s visual system responds to changes over time.
Traditionally, neuroscientists thought that the visual system only processed incoming sensory information. But recent findings suggest that this system also archives visual memories and uses them to predict what we see next.
“We want to understand how such memories influence the perception of real-world images and what role different brain regions play in this process,” said Yaniv Ziv, Ph.D., professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
“By understanding this, we want to discover whether these memories influence how flexible or rigid our visual processing is. For example, if we have seen something similar before, is our brain more or less likely to adapt to new visual information?”
This project is led by Ziv; Daniel Deitch; Alon Rubin, Ph.D.; and Itay Talpir, all at the Weizmann Institute of Science
Deciphering how the brain perceives movement
How does the brain recognize objects moving around us? This 2024 OpenScope project aims to demystify this fundamental process by studying motion perception in the visual cortex of mice. While previous studies have identified brain regions that respond to different types of motion, the underlying neural circuitry remains poorly understood.
In this project, microscopy is used to simultaneously observe the activity of multiple neurons over several weeks and in different parts of the visual cortex.
The team hopes to characterize the neuronal representation of movement across brain regions and cell types, and understand the specific circuits that support them. The insights gained from this work could have broader implications, as the same cell types and circuits are found throughout the cortex.
“If we can understand how these circuits process information in the visual system, there is a good chance that the same principles apply throughout the brain,” says Dr. Julia Veit., professor at the University of Freiburg.
This project is led by Veit; Henning Sprekeler, Ph.D., of the Technical University of Berlin; and Yael Oran, Ph.D., of the University of Freiburg.
Seeing the patterns around us
Our brains instantly recognize countless complex visual textures that surround us, from the intricate designs on a butterfly’s wings to the grain pattern of wood. But how does it pull off this remarkable feat of visual perception?
In this OpenScope project, mice are trained to distinguish textures while their neuronal activity in the visual cortex is monitored. In this way, neural responses can be linked to perception.
The main goals are to determine how certain textures are easy to recognize, while others are challenging. We also want to map how different brain regions work together to transform visual input into coherent representations that guide behavior.
These findings could reveal core principles for how the brain makes sense of our richly patterned visual world, the researchers say. But the scale and complexity of the study will require tools and resources beyond those in a typical lab setting.
“By leveraging the Allen Brain Observatory, we not only significantly expand the scope and reach of our project, but we can also compare and contextualize it with all the other Open Science projects they have led over the past decade,” said Federico Bolaños, Ph.D., chief data scientist at the University of British Columbia.
“As is happening in other fields, such as high-energy physics or astronomy, research in systems neuroscience needs to move from individual laboratories to a larger, interconnected community where we make progress together.”
This project is led by Bolaños, Timothy Murphy, Ph.D., of the University of British Columbia and Javier Orlandi, Ph.D., of the University of Calgary.
Financing: The research described in this article was supported by award number U24NS113646 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NIH or its affiliated institutes.
About this news about open science and neuroscience research
Author: Peter Kim
Source: Allen Institute
Contact: Peter Kim – Allen Institute
Image: The image is attributed to Neuroscience News