Bulk Dye Loading for In Vivo Calcium Imaging of Visual Responses in Populations of Xenopus Tectal Neurons
- Cellular and Physiological Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T2B5, Canada
- ↵1Correspondence: kurt.haas{at}ubc.ca
Abstract
Bulk loading of neurons with fluorescent calcium indicators in transparent albino Xenopus tadpoles offers a rapid and easy method for tracking sensory-evoked activity in large numbers of neurons within an awake developing brain circuit. In vivo two-photon time-lapse imaging of an image plane through the optic tectum allows defining receptive field properties from visual-evoked responses for studies of single-neuron and network-level encoding and plasticity. Here, we describe loading the Xenopus tadpole optic tectum with the membrane-permeable AM ester of Oregon Green 488 BAPTA-1 (OGB-1 AM) for in vivo imaging experiments.
Footnotes
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From the Xenopus collection, edited by Hazel L. Sive.
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Supplemental Material is available for this article at cshprotocols.cshlp.org.
