(Jürgen Goldschmidt)

In this project we analyze the use of heavy metal ions as tracers for mapping neuronal activity. We focus on the analysis of manganese uptake in mouse and rat brain by combining histochemical detection of the metal with magnetic resonance imaging (in collaboration with Frank Angenstein and Heiko Nießen) and on the analysis of thallium uptake in the nervous system of various experimental species. We use thallium autometallography for high-resolution mapping of neuronal activity under a large variety of experimental conditions including, for instance, intracortical microstimulation and in knockout mice.

Figure:
Pattern of thallium uptake in cerebral cortex of an awake behaving rat as determined by thallium autometallography