Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Optogenetic tools are indispensable for understanding the causal neural mechanisms underlying animal behavior, providing millisecond-precision control over genetically defined neural populations. Random-access laser-scanning optogenetics is a powerful and underutilized method for transiently manipulating cortical activity in mice. Despite the utility of this technique, no general-purpose open-source implementation currently exists, and potential users need expertise across optics, real-time hardware control, and programming. This represents a major barrier to adoption, particularly for newly established research groups. Here we present ‘Zapit’, the first open-source general-purpose platform for random-access laser-scanning optogenetic experiments in head-fixed mice. Zapit is fully documented, has a user-friendly GUI, works in stereotaxic coordinates, and comes with easy to build hardware options that extend functionality beyond any published system. We validate Zapit’s performance through electrophysiological recordings and cortical photoinhibition in behaving mice. Zapit is a novel and innovative tool with the potential to democratize laser-scanning optogenetics and significantly increase uptake throughout the scientific community.
Source: eLife
DOI: 10.7554/elife.111872
Authors: Michael Lohse, Oliver M Gauld, Maja T Quigley, Ainiah Masood, Chaofei Bao, Jingjie Li, Nathaniel J Miska, Gerion Nabbefeld, Quentin Pajot-Moric, Simon Townsend, Peter Vincent, Angela Y Yang, Nikolaos Zervogiannis, Athena Akrami, Chunyu A Duan, Jeffrey C Erlich, Sonja B Hofer, Thomas D Mrsic-Flogel, Philip Coen, Robert AA Campbell
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,500
Awards: Sainsbury Wellcome Centre Core Grant Renewal, Mapping audiovisual integration across learning, circuits, and behaviours, Mapping audiovisual integration across learning, circuits, and behaviours, G4097435571, Mechanisms of attentional gating of sensory evidence during decision-making, Mechanisms of attentional gating of sensory evidence during decision-making, International Brain Laboratory, Neural circuit mechanisms for value-to-action transformation during economic decision-making, Mechanisms of perceptual decision-making in premotor cortex, Mechanisms of perceptual decision-making in premotor cortex, International Brain Laboratory, G6669920279, Neural circuit mechanisms for value-to-action transformation during economic decision-making, Sainsbury Wellcome Centre Core Grant Renewal, G856880244
OpenAlex ID: W7170062634