Facility Intrinsic optical and multi-photon imaging

About our equipment

The combination of intrinsic optical imaging and multiphoton microscopy has many applications in neuroscience, because it allows to measure neural activity and structural changes in the nervous system at multiple scales. With intrinsic optical imaging the haemodynamic response and large-scale neural network activity can be measured in cortical areas at the mm-scale. With two-photon imaging the activity of large scale neural networks of individual neurons can be recorded and structural measurements can be performed up to the scale of individual dendritic spines.

The two-photon imaging set-up at PRIME contains a 8000Hz resonance scanner which allows for scanning at a high temporal resolution (512x512 pixels at 30Hz.) The set-ups are designed to be combined with viral injections (e.g. optogenetics), patch-clamp and other neurophysiological techniques, visual and somatosensory stimulation and behavioral tasks on a running ball.

Applications in PRIME

The intrinsic optical imaging set-up and two-photon imaging set-up are specifically designed for recording in:

• Cultured neural networks
• Organotypic chronic slice cultures
• Anaesthetized animals

Chronic recordings in animals performing behavioral tasks
 
The imaging modules are currently used for:

• Recording structural changes of dendritic spines
• In vivo recording of calcium transients in large neural networks
• Studies on visual, somatosensory and other cortical areas