Multi-point optical manipulation and simultaneous imaging of neural circuits through wavefront phase modulation (Presentation Recording)

The spatial connectivity of neural circuits and the various activity patterns they exert is what forms the brain function. How these patterns link to a certain perception or a behavior is a key question in neuroscience. Recording the activity of neural circuits while manipulating arbitrary neurons leads to answering this question. That is why acquiring a fast and reliable method of stimulation and imaging a population of neurons at a single cell resolution is of great importance. Owing to the recent advancements in calcium imaging and optogenetics, tens to hundreds of neurons in a living system can be imaged and manipulated optically. We describe the adaptation of a multi-point optical method that can be used to address the specific challenges faced in the in-vivo study of neuronal networks in the cerebral cortex. One specific challenge in the cerebral cortex is that the information flows perpendicular to the surface. Therefore, addressing multiple points in a three dimensional space simultaneously is of great interest. Using a liquid crystal spatial light modulator, the wavefront of the input laser beam is modified to produce multiple focal points at different depths of the sample for true multipoint two-photon excitation.