Lu Bai1,2 · Zhenkun Zhang1,2 · Lichen Ye1 · Lin Cong1 · Yuchen Zhao1,2 · Tianlei Zhang1,2 · Ziqi Shi1,2 · Kai Wang1,2,31 Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China
2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
3 Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence Technology, Shanghai 201210, China
Abstract
Recording the highly diverse and dynamic activities in large populations of neurons in behaving animals is crucial for a better understanding of how the brain works. To meet this challenge, extensive efforts have been devoted to developing functional fluorescent indicators and optical imaging techniques to optically monitor neural activity. Indeed, optical imaging potentially has extremely high throughput due to its non-invasive access to large brain regions and capability to sample neurons at high density, but the readout speed, such as the scanning speed in two-photon scanning microscopy, is often limited by various practical considerations. Among different imaging methods, light field microscopy features a highly parallelized 3D fluorescence imaging scheme and therefore promises a novel and faster strategy for functional imaging of neural activity. Here, we briefly review the working principles of various types of light field microscopes and their recent developments and applications in neuroscience studies. We also discuss strategies and considerations of optimizing light field microscopy for different experimental purposes, with illustrative examples in imaging zebrafish and mouse brains.
Keywords
Light feld microscopy; Volumetric imaging; Brain activity; Calcium imaging; Voltage imaging
