Dopamine Neuron-Specific Optogenetic Stimulation in Rhesus Macaques

Optogenetic studies in mice have revealed new relationships between well-defined neurons and brain functions. However, there are currently no means to achieve the same cell-type specificity in monkeys, which possess an expanded behavioral repertoire and closer anatomical homology to humans. Here, we...

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Main Authors:	Stauffer, William R., Lak, Armin, Yang, Aimei, Borel, Melodie, Paulsen, Ole, Boyden, Edward S., Schultz, Wolfram
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Cell Press 2016
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5018252/

id	pubmed-5018252
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-50182522016-09-19 Dopamine Neuron-Specific Optogenetic Stimulation in Rhesus Macaques Stauffer, William R. Lak, Armin Yang, Aimei Borel, Melodie Paulsen, Ole Boyden, Edward S. Schultz, Wolfram Article Optogenetic studies in mice have revealed new relationships between well-defined neurons and brain functions. However, there are currently no means to achieve the same cell-type specificity in monkeys, which possess an expanded behavioral repertoire and closer anatomical homology to humans. Here, we present a resource for cell-type-specific channelrhodopsin expression in Rhesus monkeys and apply this technique to modulate dopamine activity and monkey choice behavior. These data show that two viral vectors label dopamine neurons with greater than 95% specificity. Infected neurons were activated by light pulses, indicating functional expression. The addition of optical stimulation to reward outcomes promoted the learning of reward-predicting stimuli at the neuronal and behavioral level. Together, these results demonstrate the feasibility of effective and selective stimulation of dopamine neurons in non-human primates and a resource that could be applied to other cell types in the monkey brain. Cell Press 2016-09-08 /pmc/articles/PMC5018252/ /pubmed/27610576 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2016.08.024 Text en © 2016 The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Stauffer, William R. Lak, Armin Yang, Aimei Borel, Melodie Paulsen, Ole Boyden, Edward S. Schultz, Wolfram
spellingShingle	Stauffer, William R. Lak, Armin Yang, Aimei Borel, Melodie Paulsen, Ole Boyden, Edward S. Schultz, Wolfram Dopamine Neuron-Specific Optogenetic Stimulation in Rhesus Macaques
author_facet	Stauffer, William R. Lak, Armin Yang, Aimei Borel, Melodie Paulsen, Ole Boyden, Edward S. Schultz, Wolfram
author_sort	Stauffer, William R.
title	Dopamine Neuron-Specific Optogenetic Stimulation in Rhesus Macaques
title_short	Dopamine Neuron-Specific Optogenetic Stimulation in Rhesus Macaques
title_full	Dopamine Neuron-Specific Optogenetic Stimulation in Rhesus Macaques
title_fullStr	Dopamine Neuron-Specific Optogenetic Stimulation in Rhesus Macaques
title_full_unstemmed	Dopamine Neuron-Specific Optogenetic Stimulation in Rhesus Macaques
title_sort	dopamine neuron-specific optogenetic stimulation in rhesus macaques
description	Optogenetic studies in mice have revealed new relationships between well-defined neurons and brain functions. However, there are currently no means to achieve the same cell-type specificity in monkeys, which possess an expanded behavioral repertoire and closer anatomical homology to humans. Here, we present a resource for cell-type-specific channelrhodopsin expression in Rhesus monkeys and apply this technique to modulate dopamine activity and monkey choice behavior. These data show that two viral vectors label dopamine neurons with greater than 95% specificity. Infected neurons were activated by light pulses, indicating functional expression. The addition of optical stimulation to reward outcomes promoted the learning of reward-predicting stimuli at the neuronal and behavioral level. Together, these results demonstrate the feasibility of effective and selective stimulation of dopamine neurons in non-human primates and a resource that could be applied to other cell types in the monkey brain.
publisher	Cell Press
publishDate	2016
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5018252/
_version_	1613648203190632448

Dopamine Neuron-Specific Optogenetic Stimulation in Rhesus Macaques

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