Optogenetic modulation of the mouse default mode network with a single tapered fiber

The default mode network (DMN) is a distributed functional system of the human brain widely studied with fMRI due to its involvement in advanced cognitive processes and its dysregulation in a variety of brain disorders. Causal perturbations of this network in physiologically accessible species are critically required to probe its circuit organization and the underpinnings of its (dys)function. Here we show that tapered fiber optogenetic technology enables the reliable stimulation of key DMN nodes in a frequency dependent fashion, overcoming the limitations of traditional optogenetic approaches.