Experimental mismatch in neural circuits

Abstract

The finding that acute and chronic manipulations of the same neural circuit can produce different behavioural outcomes poses new questions about how best to analyse these circuits. See Article p.358 The development of optogenetics as a specific tool to probe the function of genetically defined neural circuits in the execution of specific behaviours has been a prominent field of recent growth in neuroscience. However, many of these studies disregard the potential for indirect effects of circuit manipulation on other downstream circuits operating independently in separate functions. Here, Bence Olveczky and colleagues reveal how transient inactivation of specific circuits in mammals and songbirds can severely impair task-specific responses that otherwise spontaneously recover after permanent lesions of the same brain areas. This suggests that additional considerations must be taken into account when interpreting data from transient circuit manipulations of behaviour.