The connectome from the cerebral cortex to the viscera using viral transneuronal tracers

Abstract

As an emerging framework in neuroscience, brain connectomics is well suited for investigating key questions on brain complexity by combining viral transneuronal tracing and whole brain graphic methodologies using analytical tools of network science. Transsynaptic viral tract-tracing in the toolbox of neural labeling methods has been a significant development in the connectomics field to decipher the circuit-level architecture of the cerebral cortex. In the present work, we reviewed the current methods enabling structural connectivity from the viscera to the cerebral cortex mapping with viral transneuronal tracers and showed how such neuroanatomic connectomic data could be used to infer new structural and functional information in viscera-cerebral cortex circuits.

Keywords: Brain; cerebral cortex; connectomics; viral transneuronal tracer; viscera.