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Updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Noncontact measurement of nerve displacement during action potential with a dual-beam low-coherence interferometer
Christopher Fang-Yen1, Mark C Chu, H Sebastian Seung
1G. R. Harrison Spectroscopy Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. minwah@mit.edu
Abstract:
We have used a novel phase-referenced heterodyne dual-beam low-coherence interferometer to perform what we believe are the first noncontact measurements of surface motion in a nerve bundle during the action potential. Nerve displacements of approximately 5-nm amplitude and approximately 10-ms duration are measured without signal averaging. This interferometer may find general application in measurement of small motion in cells and other weakly scattering samples.
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