“High-Speed, Cortex-Wide Volumetric Recording of Neuroactivity at Cellular Resolution Using Light Beads Microscopy” published in Nature Methods

We are excited to share that our paper entitled “High-Speed, Cortex-Wide Volumetric Recording of Neuroactivity at Cellular Resolution using Light Beads Microscopy” has been published in Nature Methods.

Two-photon microscopy has enabled high-resolution imaging of neuroactivity at depth within scattering brain tissue. However, its various realizations have not overcome the tradeoffs between speed and spatiotemporal sampling that would be necessary to enable mesoscale volumetric recording of neuroactivity at cellular resolution and speed compatible with resolving calcium transients. This work details our new method Light Beads Microscopy (LBM), which makes use of a column of “Light Beads” – individual beams which are distinguishable in time and focus to different depths in the sample – in order to record from the entire depth range of a given volume within the dead time between consecutive pulses from our excitation laser. By combining LBM with a commercial mesoscope, we can image mesoscale and volumetric fields of view (FOVs) at the same rate that a conventional mesoscope records a single plane. As a result, LBM gives optical access to the activity of cortex-wide volumes, allowing recording of up to 1,000,000 neurons at calcium-imaging-compatible volume rates. The size of the neuronal population recording enabled by our technique opens up a range of opportunities to understand how the neurocomputations underlying multiregional encoding and processing of sensory and behavioral information emerge from the dynamic interaction of
brain-wide networks of neurons at the single-neuron level in the mammalian brain.

Read our publication or a short summary.

Congrats to the entire team!