Super-wide-field two-photon imaging with a micro-optical device moving in post-objective space

Nat Commun. 2018 Sep 3;9(1):3550. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-06058-8.

Abstract

Wide-field imaging of neural activity at a cellular resolution is a current challenge in neuroscience. To address this issue, wide-field two-photon microscopy has been developed; however, the field size is limited by the objective size. Here, we develop a micro-opto-mechanical device that rotates within the post-objective space between the objective and brain tissue. Two-photon microscopy with this device enables sub-second sequential calcium imaging of left and right mouse sensory forelimb areas 6 mm apart. When imaging the rostral and caudal motor forelimb areas (RFA and CFA) 2 mm apart, we found high pairwise correlations in spontaneous activity between RFA and CFA neurons and between an RFA neuron and its putative axons in CFA. While mice performed a sound-triggered forelimb-movement task, the population activity between RFA and CFA covaried across trials, although the field-averaged activity was similar across trials. The micro-opto-mechanical device in the post-objective space provides a novel and flexible design to clarify the correlation structure between distant brain areas at subcellular and population levels.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Equipment Design
  • Forelimb
  • Mice
  • Microscopy / instrumentation*
  • Microscopy / methods
  • Motor Cortex / anatomy & histology
  • Motor Cortex / cytology*
  • Neurons / cytology*
  • Optical Devices*
  • Optical Imaging / instrumentation*
  • Optical Imaging / methods