Osten has adapted an automated method he previously developed called serial two-photon (STP) tomography, to scan the full mouse brain in 280 segments. In the current research, a series of behavioral experiments were run featuring a line of mice whose brain cells express a marker called green fluorescent protein (GFP) that glows whenever the c-fos gene is expressed. Cell activity across the brain in these mice was compared in groups of mice exposed to different behavioral stimuli—“social” groups having either male-male or male-female interaction, and various control groups with and without social interaction and/or olfactory stimulation.
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