Optogenetic Control of GABAergic Neurons in Mice

All animal procedures were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of The Jikei University (no. 2015-054 and 2017-001) under the Guidelines for the Proper Conduct of Animal Experiments of the Science Council of Japan (2006). Hemizygous transgenic mice (3–8 weeks old, male and female) expressing modified ChR2 (hChR2-H134R) fused with YFP in GABAergic neurons via the vesicular GABA transporter promoter/enhancer (VGAT-ChR2 mice, stock no. 014548; Jackson Laboratory)^{69 (link)} were used in photoinhibition experiments. Heterozygous knock-in mice (3–5 weeks old, male and female) expressing Venus fluorescent protein via the aldolase C promoter (Aldoc-Venus mice, MGI:3609644)^{70 (link)} were used to visually identify the cerebellar parasagittal zones.