Abstract #3751

Optogenetic fMRI of large-scale vestibular system and their cross-modal functions

Alex T. L. Leong^1,2, Yong Gu³, Xunda Wang^1,2, Russell W. Chan^1,2, Ying-Shing Chan⁴, and Ed X. Wu^1,2

¹Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, ²Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, ³Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China, ⁴School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

The vestibular system - pivotal for our sense of balance and orientation - integrates input from our other dominant senses, such as audition and vision, to create a multisensory percept. However, little is known regarding the extent of modulatory effects (if any) that the vestibular system exerts on the other sensory processing. Here, our report combined fMRI, optogenetics and sensory stimuli to provide large-scale brain-wide insights into the extent of cross-modal modulatory effects of the vestibular system on sensory processing. We reveal that vestibular nucleus optogenetic stimulation can modulate auditory and visual sensory processing at midbrain, thalamic and cortical regions.

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