UCLA

Key PointsModern optogenetics enables temporally precise, acute or chronic, excitatory or inhibitory modulation of neuronal activity with cell type and anatomical specificity that can be tuned to timing and magnitude of naturally occurring patterns within the same experimental subject.Diverse opsin variants exhibit unique spectral and kinetic features that are specifically suited for distinct experimental requirements.Optogenetics can be used in combination with electrophysiological or optical recordings, providing powerful approaches to simultaneously monitor and perturb neural function.Activity-dependent labelling of opsins can be used to reactivate neural ensembles that encode particular behaviours or experiences.New anatomical techniques (such as viral-tracing methods and hydrogel-embedding methods for optical access) enable molecular and anatomical profiling of the same cells that were active in vivo, providing integrative understanding of neural circuitry.