Thanks to a fluorescence microscope small enough to be carried on the head of a moving mouse, researchers at Stanford University in California have unveiled details of how the brain controls blood flow and motor activity.
The microscope, developed by Mark Schnitzer and his colleagues, weighs just 1.9 grams, has a volume of 2.4 cubic centimetres and is made from mass-produced components. The researchers used the device to monitor the brains of three freely moving mice. The results revealed, for example, that capillaries separated by only tens of micrometres can behave differently during movement, indicating that the brain has finer control of blood flow than had been realized.
The authors say that their microscope, which has a lower resolution than conventional fluorescent microscopes, can be cheaply mass produced.
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Mobile imaging of the mouse brain. Nature 477, 253 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/477253d
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/477253d
