First to measure the concerted activity of a neuronal circuit

Neurobiologists from the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research have been the first to measure the concerted activity of a neuronal circuit in the retina as it extracts information about a moving object. With their novel and powerful approach they can now not only visualize networks of neurons but can also measure functional aspects. These insights are direly needed for a better understanding of the processes in the brain in health and disease. For many decades electrophysiology and genetics have been the main tools in the toolbox of approaches to study individual neurons in the central nervous system to understand perception and behavior. In the last five years however, neurobiology has been riding a wave of technological advances that brought unprecedented insights: Optogenetics and genetically encoded activity sensors has allowed scientists to control and measure the activity of clearly defined neurons; the application of rabies viruses enabled the visualization of networks of interconnected nerve cells. What was still missing, was the link between neural circuit and monitoring of activity. Scientists from the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research have now been the first to measure the concerted activity of a neuronal circuit in the retina as it extracts information about the movement of an object.