The preparation described above allows observation of the whole brain under a microscope for large scale 3D imaging such as classical 2 photons or confocal microscopy, but also faster techniques such as light sheet31 and other structured illumination microscopy techniques (reviewed in32), or light field microscopy28.
The access to the whole brain while observing the behavior and maintaining functional sensory organs allows to answer several questions.
First, what is the overall brain activity when the fly is at rest, during behavior, and when it responds to stimuli? As an example, we include data obtained with a light field microscope showing brain activation during responses to stimuli and behavior. For example, in Video 2, a calcium probe was expressed in all neurons (nsyb-GAL4 and UAS-syt-GCaMP6s (left) or UAS-GCaMP6M (right)) and a puff of odor was presented. Notice how the preparation allows to get an overview of brain activity during the response to the stimulus. The powerful genetic tools in Drosophila can be used to restrict the expression of these sensors to specific neuronal subtypes. In Video 3, we restricted the expression of a calcium sensor to dopaminergic and serotoninergic neurons (TH-GAL4, DDC-GAL4 and UAS-GCaMP6M). Notice the strong synchronous activity over the brain tightly correlated with the fly walking, allowed by observing the whole brain during behavior. In addition to calcium activity, other physical or chemical signals can be imaged (using for example sensors for voltage28,33, metabolism products34,35 or specific neuromodulators36).
To understand brain activity’s role more specifically, we can ask what regions are involved in what behavior, response to stimuli or spontaneous patterns of activity. The data can indeed be used as an unbiased screen to extract functional regions using techniques such as principal component analysis and independent component analysis. Figure 9A shows different functional regions in different colors. The shape and localization of the functional regions allow to map them to anatomical templates to identify brain regions and in some cases neuron type. Furthermore, once aligned to the anatomical template, fluorescence values can be averaged in anatomical brain regions for quantitative analysis (see Figure 9B). For example, a hierarchical gaussian model applied to data in Figure 9B shows that regions are more active during walk (with a ΔF/F median of 0.029, 95% credible interval=[0.017 0.041]) but not during groom (ΔF/F median = -0.0049 with 95% credible interval=[-0.016 0.0059]).
Adding to the understanding depth, the simultaneous recordings of the different functional regions allowed by the preparation can be used to study the dynamical properties of the functional network. This is important because brain regions in all brains studied so far are highly recurrently interconnected and more and more studies show that even sensory areas respond to the animal’s behavioral state. Several aspects can be looked at such as functional graph properties (e.g., modules) and spatio-temporal patterns that can be fit with dynamical systems (see8 for examples).

Figure 1: Preparing the holder (step 1). A) Holder design (view from the top). B) Neck slot preparation. top: tape design, bottom: parallel blades used to cut the neck slot. C) View of the holder from below. D) Bottom view indicating where to add the neck slot tape. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Figure 2: Further preparations (step 1). A) Add grease into the neck slot to prevent glue to cover the back of the head and to prevent saline leaks. Scale bars, 1 mm. B) Top: shape of the piece of tape that will be used to push the body down. Bottom: make sure the tape fits the holder. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Figure 3: Placement of a v-shaped piece of tape to aid centering. (A) Bottom view. (B) Top view. Scale bar, 2 mm. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Figure 4: Place the fly (step 2). Left, use two dull forceps to place the body so that the neck is in the neck slot. Middle, align the head. The eyes lie on both sides on the edges of the slot. The fly’s head is straight. Right, tuck the fly with a tissue covered with ice to keep it from moving. Scale bar, 1 mm. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Figure 5: Fix the head (step 3). A) Ideal angle of the head. B) Add UV glue around the head, avoiding sensory areas of interest. Scale bar, 1 mm. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Figure 6: The proboscis’ tip and the antennae can be kept free from glue (step 3). The white circle indicates the area where the UV-glue has been applied. The arrow shows which parts are left free from glue for olfactory and gustatory experiments. Note the optional tape that prevents the legs from touching the glue area. Scale bar, 200 µm. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Figure 7: Place the back tape (step 4.2). The tape created in step 1 (see Figure 2, left) is used to place the body and cover the large hole in the holder. Scale bar, 1 mm. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Figure 8: Dissection steps (step 6). A-B) Cut on each side at the base of the dark triangle (crosses) and remove this part of the cuticle C). D) and E) remove muscle 16. Then gently remove the rest of the cuticle F), the air sacks G), and muscles. H) Dissected head. Scale bar, 200 µm. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.

Figure 9: Representative results. A) Functional regions (extracted using PCA and ICA as in28) for a fly expressing GCaMP6 pan-neuronally imaged with a light field microscope (25x, NA=0.95 with a matching f/12 micro lens array). Scale bar, 100 µm. B) Average calcium activity in large brain regions during responses to stimuli and behavior (reproduced from28). Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Video 1: Muscle 16 movements (step 6.3). GFP was expressed in muscles. Note the pumping movement that comes from the hole just above the trachea. Please click here to download this video.
Video 2: Pan-neuronal calcium activity during response to odor for two different preparations. Balsamic vinegar was puffed onto the fly. Pan-neuronal calcium activity (nsyb-GAL4 driver, UAS-syt-GCaMP6s left and UAS-GCaMP6M right) was imaged with a light field microscope (25x, NA=0.95 with a matching f/12 microlens array). Light field images were then reconstructed as described in ref.28,37. Please click here to download this video.
Video 3: Calcium activity in a neuron type subset during behavior. GCaMP6 was expressed in dopaminergic and serotoninergic neurons (with TH-GAL4 and DDC-GAL4). In combination with the fly genetic tools, the preparation allows to observe a strong increase in activity in many regions during walk. Please click here to download this video.
Supplementary Material. Please click here to download this file.