<p>The recently developed miniaturized head-mounted two-photon (2P) imaging devices have served as a valuable tool for neuroscientists, enabling real-time functional neural imaging in freely-behaving animals. Although the current 2P fiberscopes and miniscopes are lightweight, the weight of any potential additional accessories inevitably imposes a burden on the animal. Here, we present a buoyancy levitation method to alleviate head-mounted weight burden on mice. By utilizing the buoyance of a helium-filled balloon to counteract the additional weight of up to 7&#xa0;g, mice’ motion behavior remains largely unaffected by the added load. Neuroimage analysis provides new insights into the effects of weight burden on neural activities. This easy-to-implement method offers a platform for studying neural network function in animals, effectively freeing them from the burden of head-mounted weight.</p>

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Alleviating head-mounted weight burden for neural imaging in freely-behaving rodents

  • Yuehan Liu,
  • Jing Zhang,
  • Cheng-Yu Lee,
  • Haolin Zhang,
  • Xingde Li

摘要

The recently developed miniaturized head-mounted two-photon (2P) imaging devices have served as a valuable tool for neuroscientists, enabling real-time functional neural imaging in freely-behaving animals. Although the current 2P fiberscopes and miniscopes are lightweight, the weight of any potential additional accessories inevitably imposes a burden on the animal. Here, we present a buoyancy levitation method to alleviate head-mounted weight burden on mice. By utilizing the buoyance of a helium-filled balloon to counteract the additional weight of up to 7 g, mice’ motion behavior remains largely unaffected by the added load. Neuroimage analysis provides new insights into the effects of weight burden on neural activities. This easy-to-implement method offers a platform for studying neural network function in animals, effectively freeing them from the burden of head-mounted weight.