Photonic neural probe enabled microendoscopes for light-sheet light-field computational fluorescence brain imaging

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Optical Engineering
• Biomedical Imaging

Background:

• Light-sheet fluorescence microscopy is crucial for high-speed, high-contrast volumetric imaging.
• Conventional microscopes face geometric limitations for in vivo brain imaging in non-transparent organisms.
• Implantable photonic neural probes have miniaturized excitation optics for deep tissue imaging.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a microendoscope for lensless, light-field, computational fluorescence imaging at depth in brain tissue.
• To integrate light-sheet neural probes with miniaturized fluorescence collection optics.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of silicon-based, light-sheet neural probes with five addressable sheets.
• Packaging probes with commercially available image fiber bundles to create microendoscopes.
• Testing microendoscope performance with fluorescent beads and fixed mouse brain tissue.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated volumetric light-sheet light-field fluorescence imaging using the developed microendoscopes.
• Achieved increased imaging depth compared to conventional methods.
• Observed enhanced reconstruction accuracy relative to epi-illumination light-field imaging.

Conclusions:

• The developed microendoscope offers a compact, high-contrast solution for volumetric brain tissue imaging.
• Proof-of-concept demonstrations validate the imaging approach for deep-brain fluorescence imaging.
• This work lays the foundation for future in vivo applications using photonic neural probe-enabled microendoscopes.