Light distribution and thermal effects in the rat brain under optogenetic stimulation

Optical brain stimulation gained a lot of attention in neuroscience due to its superior cell-type specificity. In the design of illumination strategies, predicting the light propagation in a specific tissue is essential and requires knowledge of the optical properties of that tissue. We present the estimated absorption and reduced scattering in rodent brain tissue using non-destructive contact spatially resolved spectroscopy (cSRS). The obtained absorption and scattering in the cortex, hippocampus and striatum are similar, but lower than in the thalamus, leading to a less deep but broader light penetration profile in the thalamus. Next, the light distribution was investigated for different stimulation protocols relevant for fiber-optic based optogenetic experiments, using Monte Carlo simulation. A protocol specific analysis is proposed to evaluate the potential of thermally induced side effects.