Abstract
Imaging neuronal activity with high and homogeneous spatial resolution across the field-of-view (FOV) and limited invasiveness in deep brain regions is fundamental for the progress of neuroscience, yet is a major technical challenge. We achieved this goal by correcting optical aberrations in gradient index lens-based ultrathin (< 500 μm) microendoscopes using aspheric microlenses generated through 3D-microprinting. Corrected microendoscopes had extended FOV (eFOV) with homogeneous spatial resolution for two-photon fluorescence imaging and required no modification of the optical set-up. Synthetic calcium imaging data showed that, compared to uncorrected endoscopes, eFOV-microendoscopes led to improved signal-to-noise ratio and more precise evaluation of correlated neuronal activity. We experimentally validated these predictions in awake head-fixed mice. Moreover, using eFOV-microendoscopes we demonstrated cell-specific encoding of behavioral state-dependent information in distributed functional subnetworks in a primary somatosensory thalamic nucleus. eFOV-microendoscopes are, therefore, small-crosssection ready-to-use tools for deep two-photon functional imaging with unprecedentedly high and homogeneous spatial resolution.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
European Research Council (NEURO-PATTERNS)
- Tommaso Fellin
IIT interdisciplinary grant
- Tommaso Fellin
IIT interdisciplinary grant
- Carlo Liberale
KAUST (BAS/1/1064-01-01)
- Carlo Liberale
NIH Brain Initiative (NS090576)
- Tommaso Fellin
NIH Brain Initiative (NS107464)
- Tommaso Fellin
NIH Brain Initiative (NS107464)
- Stefano Panzeri
NIH Brain Initiative (NS109961)
- Stefano Panzeri
FP7 (DESIRE)
- Tommaso Fellin
FIRB (RBAP11X42L)
- Tommaso Fellin
Flag-Era JTC Human Brain Project (SLOW-DYN)
- Tommaso Fellin
Flag-Era JTC Human Brain Project (SLOW-DYN)
- Stefano Panzeri
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: Experimental procedures involving animals have been approved by the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia Animal Health Regulatory Committee, by the National Council on Animal Care of the Italian Ministry of Health (authorization # 1134/2015-PR, # 689/2018-PR) and carried out according to the National legislation (D.Lgs. 26/2014) and to the legislation of the European Communities Council Directive (European Directive 2010/63/EU).
Reviewing Editor
- Ryohei Yasuda, Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience, United States
Publication history
- Received: May 13, 2020
- Accepted: October 12, 2020
- Accepted Manuscript published: October 13, 2020 (version 1)
- Accepted Manuscript updated: October 15, 2020 (version 2)
- Version of Record published: November 24, 2020 (version 3)
Copyright
© 2020, Fellin et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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