Table 1

Features of technical approaches commonly used for studying neuroscience

			Features
Main technlogy	Tools	Acute onset	Behaving animals	Cell-type specific	Protein specific
Optogenetic	ChR2, NpHR, oCHIEF	√	√	√
Calcium imaging	GCaMP, RCaMP, CAMPARI	√	√	√
Genetic manipulation	Overexpression, knock-out, knock-down, CRISPR		√	√	√
Pharmacology	Traditional pharmacology	√	√		√
	Pharmacogenetics (DREADDs)	√	√	√
	Genetically -encoded toxin		√	√	√

CRISPR, Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats; CaMPARI, Calcium-modulated photoactivatable ratiometric integrator; ChR2, Channelrhodopsin-2; DREADD, Designer receptors exclusively activated by a designer drug; NpHR, Halorhodopsin.