Generating a Coronal Brain Slice Exposing the Amygdala Regions from a Mouse Brain
Transcription
Take a mouse brain in an ice-cold buffer and remove its posterior portion containing the cerebellum and the anterior portion with the medial prefrontal cortex, or mPFC.
The middle portion contains amygdala regions that process emotions like fear and anxiety.
Move the brain section onto a filter paper to remove the excess buffer.
Glue it onto a stage and fix an agar block behind the section to prevent its movement during slicing.
Place this stage into a vibratome cutting chamber with the ice-cold buffer.
Cut the section to obtain a thin coronal brain slice.
This exposes the amygdala regions, which contain synaptic connections between the amygdala neurons and the projections of mPFC neurons that regulate the amygdala's responses.
Cut the slice into two halves, each containing an amygdala region.
Next, transfer them to an interface chamber containing oxygenated artificial cerebrospinal fluid.
Recover the slices at physiological temperature to maintain neuronal viability.
