Thermally Adaptive Surface Microscopy for brain functional imaging

TL;DR

This paper introduces a thermally adaptive surface microscopy technique that enables high-speed, 3D functional imaging of live brain activity, overcoming limitations of traditional fluorescence microscopy.

Contribution

The study presents a novel thermally tunable microlens array combined with patterned illumination for real-time 3D brain imaging at camera framerates.

Findings

Successfully monitored neuronal activity in zebrafish brain in vivo

Achieved imaging at 0.5 kHz over a large field of view

Demonstrated optical sectioning with minimal chromatic aberration

Abstract

Fluorescence microscopes can record the dynamics of living cells with high spatio-temporal resolution in a single plane. However, monitoring rapid and dim fluorescence fluctuations, e.g induced by neuronal activity in the brain, remains challenging for 3D-distributed emitters due to out-of-focus fluorescence background, a restricted photon budget, and the speed limit of conventional scanning systems. Here, we introduce a Thermally Adaptive Surface strategy, capable of simultaneously recording, at camera framerate, the activity of 3D-distributed objects. This innovative microscope leverages on an array of thermally tuneable microlenses that offer low chromatic aberration and high transmission, and can be combined with patterned illumination to provide optical sectioning. We demonstrate its potential in vivo, by simultaneously monitoring fast fluorescent dynamics at different depths in the zebrafish larval brain, at a rate of 0.5 kHz and over a large field of view (360um x 360um).