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Optogenetics meets optical wavefront shaping

Nature Methods volume 7, pages 798–799 (2010)Cite this article

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Optogenetic stimulation by ultrashort laser pulses could allow neural circuits in the living brain to be probed with cellular resolution, despite pervasive light scattering. Now sophisticated new multiphoton stimulation systems that strike a better balance between lateral and axial resolution help realize this potential by matching the illumination volume to the soma's dimensions.

Our vision relies on the interaction of light with cells in our nervous system, but it is only in the last few years that a cadre of 'optogenetic' light-gated proteins have emerged that allow researchers to methodically use photobiology to probe (stimulate or inhibit) neurons and other excitable cells in intact animals. Optogenetics has distinguished itself from other neurostimulation methods (mostly electrode-based) primarily through its ability to genetically target specific cell subpopulations. Many researchers are already expressing probes such as the algal light-activated cation channel Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) in target cell populations in various brain regions and using implanted optical fibers or LEDs (for superficial structures) to drive the entire targeted population with millisecond-precision pulses of blue light1. Various probes expressed in distinct or overlapping populations can also be selectively triggered by using different wavelengths of light.

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Figure 1: The challenge of optogenetic multiphoton stimulation.

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  1. Shy Shoham is in the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, The Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.,

    Shy Shoham

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Correspondence to Shy Shoham.

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Shoham, S. Optogenetics meets optical wavefront shaping. Nat Methods 7, 798–799 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth1010-798

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