Optogenetics in mice performing a visual discrimination task: measurement and suppression of retinal activation and the resulting behavioral artifact
Open accessAbstract
Optogenetic techniques are used widely to perturb and interrogate neural circuits in behaving animals, but illumination can have additional effects, such as the activation of endogenous opsins in the retina. We found that illumination, delivered deep into the brain via an optical fiber, evoked a behavioral artifact in mice performing a visually guided discrimination task. Compared with blue (473 nm) and yellow (589 nm) illumination, red (640 nm) illumination evoked a greater behavioral artifact and more activity in the retina, the latter measured with electrical recordings. In the mouse, the sensitivity of retinal opsins declines steeply with wavelength across the visible spectrum, but propagation of light through brain tissue increases with wavelength. Our results suggest that poor retinal sensitivity to red light was overcome by relatively robust propagation of red light through brain tissue and stronger illumination of the retina by red than by blue or yellow light. Light adaptation of the retina, via an external source of illumination, suppressed retinal activation and the behavioral artifact without otherwise impacting behavioral performance. In summary, long wavelength optogenetic stimuli are particularly prone to evoke behavioral artifacts via activation of retinal opsins in the mouse, but light adaptation of the retina can provide a simple and effective mitigation of the artifact.
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The ability of red light to induce dopamine release at intensities as low as 0.1 μW/cm2 is consistent with research that rodents are better at perceiving red wavelengths than is commonly acknowledged.
“The ability of red light to induce dopamine release at intensities as low as 0.1 μW/cm2 is consistent with research that rodents are better at perceiving red wavelengths than is commonly acknowledged (Danskin et al., 2015; Nikbakht and Diamond, 2021; Vinberg et al., 2019).”
From Ventral striatum dopamine release encodes unique properties of visual stimuli in mice (2023) · cites this paper as Danskin et al., 2015
The Discussion (page not supplied) reports that mice showed a visual response to 640 nm light delivered through an implanted brain fiber, despite lower retinal sensitivity to red wavelengths. It does not report dopamine release or effects at 0.1 μW/cm²; its finding is specific to light reaching the retina through brain tissue. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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“1 μW/cm(2) is consistent with research that rodents are better at perceiving red wavelengths than is commonly acknowledged (Danskin et al., 2015; Nikbakht and Diamond, 2021; Vinberg et al., 2019).”
Background
- Authors
- Danskin, B., Denman, D., Valley, M., Ollerenshaw, D., Williams, D., Groblewski, P., Reid, C., Olsen, S., & Waters, J.
- Affiliations
- Allen Institute for Brain Science (US)
- Corresponding author
- Waters, Jack
- ORCID
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2015-12-11
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- e0144760
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4686123
- OpenAlex
- W2189989123
- Cited by
- 46
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 0.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2016-02-05)
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (4r01ns078067-05)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01-NS-078067, NS078067)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Photoreceptor and optogenetics research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neural Engineering
- Keywords
- optogenetics, red light, light adaptation, visual discrimination task, mice, illumination effects
- MeSH terms
- Channelrhodopsins, Adaptation, Physiological, Animals, Discrimination, Psychological, Evoked Potentials, Visual, Female, Light, Male, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Mice, Transgenic, Microelectrodes, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Photic Stimulation, Retina, Stereotaxic Techniques, Task Performance and Analysis, Gene Expression, Artifacts, Mice, Optical Fibers, Cholinergic Neurons, Optogenetics
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