Fig. 7: Investigating hαSyn- and PFF-induced regulation of dopamine neuronal network connectivity in the SNc and VTA.

A Schematic representation of the experimental design: DAT:cre mice were bilaterally injected with AVV5:FLEx-GCaMP8f (300 nL) for live cell calcium imaging and unilaterally received AAV-TH-hαSyn (1 µL) or αSyn PFF (2 µg/µL; 1µL per hemisphere; 0.5µL in the SNc and 0.5µL in the VTA). B Representative GCaMP8f-labeled dopamine neurons. C Normalized calcium traces from dopamine neurons in the SNc (top) and VTA (bottom). D Raster plots of neuronal firing activity show temporal patterns of calcium signaling in individual dopamine neurons. E Adjacency matrices illustrating neuronal connectivity, where “1” denotes a connection between two neurons and “0” denotes no connection. F Network connectivity graphs derived from adjacency matrices. Each node represents an individual neuron, with the size and intensity of color indicating the number of connections for that neuron (greater size, larger number of connections and darker color reflect higher connectivity). These analyses highlight the differential network connectivity of dopamine neurons in the SNc and VTA under conditions of hαSyn or αSyn PFF exposure.