The dorsal root ganglia (DRG) are the first-order neurons in the somatosensory system. However, DRG neuronal activity in awake behaving animals remains unknown. This study developed a method for imaging DRG at cellular and subcellular resolution over weeks in awake mice. They installed an intervertebral fusion mount to reduce spinal movement and implanted a vertebral glass window without interfering animals’ motor and sensory functions.

The dataset contains DRG images as well as supplementary data tied to the publication. The supplementary data includes data that was used to assemble different figures in the publication, which contains data about active population, calcium activity in awake vs. anesthesia, baseline integrated calcium activity over 3 weeks, average activity, integrated activity, size distribution, and size-activity analysis. It also contains data about integrated calcium activity over 1 hour post injection, normalized calcium activity, time-course flinches, phased flinches, correlation between calcium activity and flinches, and integrated calcium activity over 36 days.