Violeta Gisselle Lopez-Huerta

Instituto de Fisiología Celular · Neurodevelopment and Physiology

Skilled motor behavior requires bihemispheric coordination, and participation of striatal outputs originating from two neuronal groups identified by distinctive expression of D1 or D2 dopamine receptors. We trained mice to reach for and grasp a single food pellet and determined how the output pathways differently affected forelimb trajectory and ta...

Fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) encodes the RNA binding protein FMRP. Loss of FMRP drives Fragile X syndrome (FXS), the leading inherited cause of intellectual disability and a leading monogenic cause of autism. While cortical hyperexcitability is a hallmark of FXS, the reported phenotypes and underlying mechanisms, including alterations in s...

The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), the major source of thalamic inhibition, regulates thalamocortical interactions that are critical for sensory processing, attention and cognition1,2,3,4,5. TRN dysfunction has been linked to sensory abnormality, attention deficit and sleep disturbance across multiple neurodevelopmental disorders6,7,8,9. However...

Fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) encodes the RNA binding protein FMRP. Loss of FMRP drives Fragile X syndrome (FXS), the leading inherited cause of intellectual disability and a leading monogenic cause of autism. Cortical hyperexcitability is a hallmark of FXS, however, the underlying mechanisms reported, including alterations in synaptic tran...

CACNA1I, a schizophrenia risk gene, encodes a subtype of voltage-gated T-type calcium channel CaV3.3. We previously reported that a patient-derived missense de novo mutation (R1346H) of CACNA1I impaired CaV3.3 channel function. Here, we generated CaV3.3-RH knock-in animals, along with mice lacking CaV3.3, to investigate the biological impact of R13...

A longstanding goal in neuroscience has been to image membrane voltage across a population of individual neurons in an awake, behaving mammal. Here we describe a genetically encoded fluorescent voltage indicator, SomArchon, which exhibits millisecond response times and is compatible with optogenetic control, and which increases the sensitivity, sig...

A longstanding goal in neuroscience has been to image membrane voltage, with high temporal precision and sensitivity, in awake behaving mammals. Here, we report a genetically encoded voltage indicator, SomArchon, which exhibits millisecond response times and compatibility with optogenetic control, and which increases the sensitivity, signal-to-nois...

Dopaminergic and serotonergic neurons modulate and control processes ranging from reward signaling to regulation of motor outputs. Further, dysfunction of these neurons is involved in both degenerative and psychiatric disorders. Elucidating the roles of these neurons has been greatly facilitated by bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) transgenic m...

For more than 3 decades it has been known, that striatal neurons become hyperactive after the loss of dopamine input, but the involvement of dopamine (DA) D1‐ or D2‐receptor‐expressing neurons has only been demonstrated indirectly. By recording neuronal activity using fluorescent calcium indicators in D1 or D2 eGFP‐expressing mice, we showed that f...

The axolotl can regenerate multiple organs, including the brain. It remains, however, unclear whether neuronal diversity, intricate tissue architecture, and axonal connectivity can be regenerated; yet, this is critical for recovery of function and a central aim of cell replacement strategies in the mammalian central nervous system. Here, we demonst...

Most neurons in the striatum are projection neurons (SPNs) which make synapses with each other within distances of approximately 100 𝜇m. About 5% of striatal neurons are GABAergic interneurons whose axons expand hundreds of microns. Short-term synaptic plasticity (STSP) between fast-spiking (FS) interneurons and SPNs and between SPNs has been descr...

The cell assembly (CA) hypothesis has been used as a conceptual framework to explain how groups of neurons form memories. CAs are defined as neuronal pools with synchronous, recurrent and sequential activity patterns. However, neuronal interactions and synaptic properties that define CAs signatures have been difficult to examine because identities...

Most neurons in the striatum are projection neurons (SPNs) which make synapses with each other within distances of approximately 100 μm. About 5% of striatal neurons are GABAergic interneurons whose axons expand hundreds of microns. Short term synaptic plasticity (STSP) between fast-spiking (FS) interneurons and SPNs, and between SPNs have been des...

Most neurons in the striatum are projection neurons (SPNs) which make synapses with each other within distances of approximately 100 𝜇m. About 5% of striatal neurons are GABAergic interneurons whose axons expand hundreds of microns. Short-term synaptic plasticity (STSP) between fast-spiking (FS) interneurons and SPNs and between SPNs has been descr...

The striosome (or patch) was first identified with anatomical techniques as neurons organized in a three-dimensional labyrinth inserted in and interdigitating the rest of neostriatum: the matrix. Striosome and matrix rapidly became known as two neuronal compartments expressing different biochemical markers, embryonic development and afferent and ef...

Abstract The striosome (or patch) was first identified with anatomical techniques as neurons organized in a three-dimensional labyrinth inserted in and interdigitating the rest of neostriatum: the matrix. Striosome and matrix rapidly became known as two neuronal compartments expressing different biochemical markers, embryonic development and affere...

N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDAR) are crucial for the function of excitatory neurotransmission and are present at the synapse and on the extrasynaptic membrane. The major nucleus of the basal ganglia, striatum, receives a large glutamatergic excitatory input carrying information about movements and associated sensory stimulation for its proper...

Bursting activity initiated by glutamate receptor stimulation is considered a crucial event in the establishment of synaptic connections in the developing nervous system. Here we report that bursting cortical activity was increased in vitro by blocking astrocytic glutamate uptake and therefore increasing the concentration of glutamate in the extrac...

Inhibitory connections among striatal projection neurons (SPNs) called "feedback inhibition," have been proposed to endow the striatal microcircuit with computational capabilities, such as motor sequence selection, filtering, and the emergence of alternating network states. These properties are disrupted in models of Parkinsonism. However, the impa...

Somatostatin (SST) is a peptide synthesized and released by a class of neostriatal local GABAergic interneurons, which, to some extent, are in charge of the feedforward inhibitory circuit. Spiny projection neurons (SPNs) make synapses with each other via their local axon collaterals, shaping the feedback inhibitory circuit. Both inhibitory circuits...

Medium spiny projection neurons (MSNs) are the main neuronal population in the neostriatum. MSNs are inhibitory and GABAergic. MSNs connect with other MSNs via local axon collaterals that produce lateral inhibition, which is thought to select cell assemblies for motor action. MSNs also receive inhibitory inputs from GABAergic local interneurons. Th...