At Inscopix, we take immense pride in the scientific success of our community members. Recently, we had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Anatol Kreitzer (Gladstone Institutes/UCSF) about the tour-de-force study from his lab published in Cell last week. This paper investigated the role of a small population of striatal neurons, the GABAergic Fast-Spiking Interneurons (FSIs), in motor control. Much to the authors surprise, and contrary to their hypothesis, FSI do not regulate motor control but rather they play a pivotal role in motor learning. This Kreitzer lab study is additionally notable because it is the first paper that used Inscopix’s state-of-the-art nVoke technology for simultaneous calcium imaging and optogenetics to dissect the neural network mechanisms that FSI employ to control motor learning. This paper and the collaboration between the Kreitzer lab and Inscopix that enabled it, is science at its finest. It is a vivid demonstration of how breakthrough neurotechnologies coupled with a team science spirit can catalyze new mechanistic insights into brain function.
Check out the video here!