Fast, Focused, and Far-Reaching: A New 3D, Two-Photon Imaging Technique
Material below is adapted from the SfN Short Course Acousto-optical Scanning–Based High-Speed 3D Two-Photon Imaging in Vivo, by Balázs Rózsa, MD, PhD, Gergely Szalay, and Gergely Katona. Short Courses are daylong scientific trainings on emerging neuroscience topics and research techniques held the day before SfN’s annual meeting.
Oftentimes when imaging the brain, a wider view is sacrificed for finer detail, or vice versa. Although the ideal imaging technique could resolve both signals propagating within single neurons and signals sent across a whole network of hundreds of neurons, the two views present different challenges. Imaging in single cells must be able to distinguish activity in adjacent compartments (the soma compared to the dendrite, for example) while imaging networks of hundreds of cells must be able to measure simultaneous activity in cells that are hundreds of micrometers apart. Because of this, most current technologies are optimized for just one of the two views. A microscope that could tackle both would need to be fast yet fine-detailed, focused yet far-reaching.
Access to the full article is available to SfN members.
Neuronline is a benefit of SfN membership. Renew your membership now to make sure you don’t lose access.
