{"id":565391,"date":"2026-08-11T05:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T05:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/565391\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T05:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T05:42:09","slug":"new-platform-images-neurons-across-multiple-depths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/565391\/","title":{"rendered":"New platform images neurons across multiple depths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><p class=\"first-letter:text-2xl first-letter:float-left first-letter:text-red first-letter:pr-2 pb-0\">\n    T<\/p>\n<p>he system involves arrangements of mirrors that split a laser beam into 14 \u201clight beads.\u201d A beam splitter doubles this to 28. \u201cThey split their laser into an arrayed comb of spots, then scan those [light beads] through the sample in parallel, so you can measure many more points at a time,\u201d Cohen says.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The mirrors produce slight delays between beads, making it possible to place excitation precisely and increasing the area that can be scanned\u2014up to 590 \u00d7 400 microns, and in one case recording from 180 neurons simultaneously. The team also demonstrated a deep mode, recording from neurons 500 microns within the brain, and a rapid mode, capable of 2 kilohertz frame rates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-light italic text-2sm p-0 lg:text-3md\">\n            To maximize the population you can image, you need to think very strategically about how to maximize efficiency in terms of energy, time and space.        <\/p>\n<p> \u2014 <\/p>\n<p>                 \u2014<br \/>\n                Alipasha Vaziri <\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41592-025-02925-7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">similar approach<\/a>, which also splits the laser and was published in December, solved many of the same problems, but \u201cthe main advance in the newest work from Vaziri is that the locations of the pulses can be more easily reconfigured,\u201d Cohen says. This versatility is particularly useful for scanning two planes simultaneously.<\/p>\n<p>Vaziri\u2019s team demonstrated this multilevel scanning on mice while their whiskers were stimulated. \u201cWe put one plane in layer 2\/3 and another in layer 4 of the mouse cortex,\u201d Vaziri says. \u201cBy imaging these two planes, we showed that neurons in layer 4 were activated first, then layer 2\/3 neurons.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Neuroscientists could use this to trace how information flows, both \u201cwithin and between cortical layers during sensory processing, or other cortical computations,\u201d Cohen says.<\/p>\n<p>Another configuration maximized sensitivity, making it possible to detect changes below neurons\u2019 firing threshold. \u201cSubthreshold activity is important because it gives information about connected neurons,\u201d Vaziri says. \u201cIf you imagine combining this with techniques such as optogenetics, you move towards an optical approach for circuit mapping.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The platform\u2019s flexibility should enable the team to incorporate future advances in voltage indicators, which are constantly improving. \u201cThat was in our minds from the outset, to take advantage of ongoing improvements,\u201d Vaziri says.<\/p>\n<p>Going forward, however, the \u201ccost and complexity [of the platform] are a challenge that will have to be dealt with if these are going to be widely used,\u201d Cohen says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"T he system involves arrangements of mirrors that split a laser beam into 14 \u201clight beads.\u201d A beam&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-565391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}