What can population calcium imaging tell us about neural circuits?

Calcium imaging of bulk-loaded fluorescent indicators can be used to record the spiking activity of hundreds of neurons. Recent advances promise imaging technologies that are faster, more efficient, and applicable to awake animals, thereby moving imaging capabilities closer to the traditional strengths of multi-electrode arrays. This article reviews these technical achievements and discusses how they can help us achieve the goal of understanding neural circuits.

[1]  Haruo Kasai,et al.  Three-dimensional mapping of unitary synaptic connections by two-photon macro photolysis of caged glutamate. , 2008, Journal of neurophysiology.

[2]  W. Webb,et al.  Nonlinear magic: multiphoton microscopy in the biosciences , 2003, Nature Biotechnology.

[3]  K. Fujita.  [Two-photon laser scanning fluorescence microscopy]. , 2007, Tanpakushitsu kakusan koso. Protein, nucleic acid, enzyme.

[4]  G. Buzsáki.  Large-scale recording of neuronal ensembles , 2004, Nature Neuroscience.

[5]  T. Holy,et al.  Fast Three-Dimensional Fluorescence Imaging of Activity in Neural Populations by Objective-Coupled Planar Illumination Microscopy , 2008, Neuron.

[7]  C. Stosiek,et al.  In vivo two-photon calcium imaging of neuronal networks , 2003, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[8]  David S. Greenberg,et al.  Imaging input and output of neocortical networks in vivo. , 2005, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[9]  W. Denk,et al.  In vivo two-photon voltage-sensitive dye imaging reveals top-down control of cortical layers 1 and 2 during wakefulness , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[10]  Keith J. Kelleher,et al.  Three-dimensional random access multiphoton microscopy for functional imaging of neuronal activity , 2008, Nature Neuroscience.

[11]  A. Lambacher,et al.  High-resolution multitransistor array recording of electrical field potentials in cultured brain slices. , 2006, Journal of neurophysiology.

[12]  D. Tank,et al.  Imaging Large-Scale Neural Activity with Cellular Resolution in Awake, Mobile Mice , 2007, Neuron.

[13]  E. Yaksi,et al.  Reconstruction of firing rate changes across neuronal populations by temporally deconvolved Ca2+ imaging , 2006, Nature Methods.