Welcome to my PhD thesis' digital appendix 🧠

The digital appendix to my PhD thesis contains interactive supplementary material and multimedia to support the main figures in the thesis. Interactive plots aim to make some of the more data-dense figures easier to parse by providing an interactive interface to explore the data, while supplementary videos add a little more context to the otherwise static figures in the thesis.

Interactive figures are known to work in Safari v16.0+, Chrome 113.0+, and Firefox 112.0+. Please make sure that JavaScript is enabled in your browser. Your mileage may vary with other browsers and on mobile.

Contents

• Chapter 3 - Visuomotor learning deficits in a female mouse model of Rett syndrome

  In this chapter, I leverage the Visiomode platform to explore whether female Mecp2+/- mice display visuomotor learning deficits prior to the onset of gross motor symptoms in a freely moving visual discrimination touchscreen task. Supplementary material include videos of nose-poke and forelimb reaching interactions with the touchscreen, as well as examples of the openfield and gridwalk tasks used as control measures of gross motor function.

• Chapter 4 - Functional connectivity of the dorsal cortex at rest

  This chapter examines whether the reduction in MeCP2 expression affects the flow of information across the dorsal cortex at rest. Supplementary material comprises of interactive heatmaps and graph models of functional connectivity at rest, as well as videos of grooming and quiescent behaviour.

• Chapter 5 - Visually evoked responses in dorsal cortex

  To determine whether a reduction in MeCP2 expression affects the perception of visual stimuli, chapter 5 uses mesoscale calcium imaging to compare visually evoked responses across the dorsal cortices of Wt and Mecp2+/- female mice. Supplementary material comprises of example videos of calcium responses to visual stimulation.

• Chapter 6 - Macroscale cortical dynamics across learning & their disruption in a mouse model of Rett syndrome

  In chapter 6, I explore the evolution of cortical dynamics across visuomotor learning in Wt and Mecp2+/- mice. Supplementary material include interactive heatmap and graph models of functional connectivity during learning, as well as videos of the lever-push apparatus and example ∆F/F0 traces during visuomotor behaviour.