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Optogenetics Based Rat–Robot Control: Optical Stimulation Encodes “Stop” and “Escape” Commands

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Abstract

Electric brain stimulation is frequently used in bio-robot control. However, one possible limitation of electric stimulation is the resultant wide range of influences that may lead to unexpected side-effects. Although there has been prior research done towards optogenetics based brain activation, there has not been much development regarding the comparisons between electric and optical methods of brain activation. In this study, we first encode “Stop” and “Escape” commands by optical stimulation in the dorsal periaqueductal grey (dPAG). The rats behavioral comparisons are then noted down under these two methods. The dPAG neural activity recorded during optical stimulation suggests rate and temporal coding mechanisms in behavioral control. The behavioral comparisons show that rats exhibit anxiety under the “Stop” command conveyed through both optical and electric methods. However, rats are able to recover more quickly from freezing only under optical “Stop” command. Under “Escape” commands, also conveyed through optical means, the rat would move with lessened urgency but the results are more stable. Moreover, c-Fos study shows the optical stimulation activates restricted range in midbrain: the optical stimulation affected only dPAG and its downstreams but electric stimulation activates both the upstream and downstream circuits, in which the glutamatergic neurons are largely occupied and play important role in “Stop” and “Escape” behavior controls. We conclude that optical stimulation is more suited for encoding “Stop” and “Escape” commands for rat–robot control.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. ShuMin Duan for assistance with virus injection and frozen brain slices preparation. We thank ChaoNan Yu for the animal surgery and the fabrication of the multi-electrode array and LiQiang Gao for the assistance with partial EPM image processing. We thank Tristan of National University of Singapore for language editing. This research was supported by (1) National Basic Research Program of China, 2011CB504400; (2) The National High Technology Research and Development Program of China, 2012AA020408; (3) National Natural Science Foundation of China, 61305145, 61305146, 31371001; (4) Specialized Research Fund for Doctoral Program of Higher Education, 20130101120166; (5) Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities; (6) Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China LQ13H180001.

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All authors declare no conflict and financial interest relating to this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, People’s Republic of China

    SiCong Chen, JiaCheng Zhang, ZhouYan Feng & XiaoXiang Zheng

  2. Qiushi Academy for Advanced Studies (QAAS), Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, People’s Republic of China

    SiCong Chen, Hong Zhou, SongChao Guo, Yi Qu, KeDi Xu & XiaoXiang Zheng

  3. Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Cardio-Cerebral Vascular Detection Technology and Medicinal Effectiveness Appraisal, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, People’s Republic of China

    SiCong Chen, ZhouYan Feng & XiaoXiang Zheng

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  1. SiCong Chen
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Correspondence to KeDi Xu.

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Associate Editor Anastasios G. Bezerianos oversaw the review of this article.

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10439_2014_1235_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Fig. S1 Retrograde labeling of neurons by CTB. (A) CTB-AF555 was microinjected into the dPAG, and fluorescent cell bodies were found in the cont-dPAG and ips-SC in the midbrain and are magnified in (B) and (C), separately. (D) CTB-AF555 was microinjected into the SC. Some neurons in the cont-SC showed fluorescent cell bodies, and a very high density of fluorescent cell bodies was shown in a broad range of ips-SC and is magnified in (E) and (F) separately. The asterisks show the cell body positions in (B) and (E). (TIFF 24931 kb)

10439_2014_1235_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Fig. S2 The glutamatergic neurons axon projection directions. (A) Glutamatergic neuron projection from dPAG (injection position labeled as shadow); The fluorescent axons exhibited in contralateral dPAG (B), ipsilateral BIC (C), ipsilateral cp (D) and ipsilateral PPTg (E); (F) Glutamatergic neuron projection from SC (injection position labeled as shadow); The fluorescent axons exhibited in ipsilateral BIC (G) via ipsilateral SC (H), in ipsilateral dPAG (I) and contralateral SC (J). (TIFF 48831 kb)

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Chen, S., Zhou, H., Guo, S. et al. Optogenetics Based Rat–Robot Control: Optical Stimulation Encodes “Stop” and “Escape” Commands. Ann Biomed Eng 43, 1851–1864 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-014-1235-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-014-1235-x

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