The hippocampus is essential for spatial and episodic memory but is damaged early in Alzheimer’s disease and is very sensitive to hypoxia. Understanding how it regulates its oxygen supply is therefore key for designing interventions to preserve its function. However, studies of neurovascular function in the hippocampus in vivo have been limited by its relative inaccessibility. Here we compared hippocampal and visual cortical neurovascular function in awake mice, using two photon imaging of individual neurons and vessels and measures of regional blood flow and haemoglobin oxygenation. We show that blood flow, blood oxygenation and neurovascular coupling were decreased in the hippocampus compared to neocortex, because of differences in both the vascular network and pericyte and endothelial cell function. Modelling oxygen diffusion indicates that these features of the hippocampal vasculature may restrict oxygen availability and could explain its sensitivity to damage during neurological conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, where the brain’s energy supply is decreased.

Place cells, spatially responsive hippocampal cells, provide the neural substrate supporting navigation and spatial memory. Historically most studies of these neurons have used electrophysiological recordings from implanted electrodes but optical methods, measuring intracellular calcium, are becoming increasingly common. Several methods have been proposed as a means to identify place cells based on their calcium activity but there is no common standard and it is unclear how reliable different approaches are. Here we tested four methods that have previously been applied to two-photon hippocampal imaging or electrophysiological data, using both model datasets and real imaging data. These methods use different parameters to identify place cells, including the peak activity in the place field, compared to other locations (the Peak method); the stability of cells’ activity over repeated traversals of an environment (Stability method); a combination of these parameters with the size of the place field (Combination method); and the spatial information held by the cells (Information method). The methods performed differently from each other on both model and real data. In real datasets, vastly different numbers of place cells were identified using the four methods, with little overlap between the populations identified as place cells. Therefore, choice of place cell detection method dramatically affects the number and properties of identified cells. Ultimately, we recommend the Peak method be used in future studies to identify place cell populations, as this method is robust to moderate variations in place field within a session, and makes no inherent assumptions about the spatial information in place fields, unless there is an explicit theoretical reason for detecting cells with more narrowly defined properties.

Place cells, spatially responsive hippocampal cells, provide the neural substrate supporting navigation and spatial memory. Historically most studies of these neurons have used electrophysiological recordings from implanted electrodes but optical methods, measuring intracellular calcium, are becoming increasingly common. Several methods have been proposed as a means to identify place cells based on their calcium activity but there is no common standard and it is unclear how reliable different approaches are. Here we tested three methods that have previously been applied to two-photon hippocampal imaging or electrophysiological data, using both model datasets and real imaging data. These methods use different parameters to identify place cells, including the peak activity in the place field, compared to other locations (the Peak method); the stability of cells’ activity over repeated traversals of an environment (Stability method); and a combination of these parameters with the size of the place field (Combination method). The three methods performed differently from each other on both model and real data. The Peak method showed high sensitivity and specificity for detecting model place cells and was the most robust to variations in place field width, reliability and field location. In real datasets, vastly different numbers of place cells were identified using the three methods, with little overlap between the populations identified as place cells. Therefore, choice of place cell detection method dramatically affects the number and properties of identified cells. We recommend the Peak method be used in future studies to identify place cell populations, unless there is an explicit theoretical reason for detecting cells with more narrowly defined properties.

Vascular dysfunction is an early feature of late onset Alzheimer's disease (AD), preceding classic AD pathology such as beta amyloid accumulation and formation of hyperphosphorylated tau. Such vascular dysfunction may promote classic AD pathology by decreasing blood flow, impairing brain oxygenation and clearance of molecules such as beta amyloid. The main genetic risk factor for AD is the ϵ4 allele of APOE, which has been found to increase blood brain barrier permeability and decrease vascular density, as well as decrease blood flow and functional hyperaemia in anaesthetised mice undergoing acute surgery. These results suggest that APOE4 may confer AD risk via its effects on the vasculature. However, the responses of neurons and individual vessels have not been studied, so neurovascular relationships are unknown, and no previous studies have looked at awake mice. We therefore measured neurovascular responses at rest and in response to visual stimulation using 2 photon imaging of awake APOE3 and APOE4 targeted-replacement (APOE TR) mice that expressed the calcium indicator GCaMP6f in excitatory neurons, while labelling the vascular lumen with Texas Red dextran. In parallel, we measured cerebral blood flow, blood oxygenation and cerebral blood volume using combined laser Doppler flowmetry and haemoglobin spectrometry. Measurements were performed in mice aged between 3-4 months to 12-13 months. We found a milder vascular deficit in awake mice than previous studies that used an acute surgical preparation: capillary responses to visual stimulation were the same in APOE3 and APOE4 TR mice, leading to unimpaired functional hyperaemia. However, neuronal calcium signals during visual stimulation were significantly enhanced in APOE4 mice, while there was a marked decrease in pial arteriole responsiveness and vasomotion. This pattern of results was unaffected by age, suggesting that APOE4 expression creates a stable, but mildly altered neurovascular state that does not itself cause degeneration. However, these changes likely make the system more sensitive to subsequent insults; for example, weaker vasomotion could impair clearance of beta amyloid as it starts to accumulate, and therefore may help explain how APOE4 expression increases risk of developing AD.

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