MiniXL: An open-source, large field-of-view epifluorescence miniscope enabling single-cell resolution and...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Biomedical Engineering
• Animal Behavior

Background:

• Understanding neural mechanisms requires tracking brain activity in freely behaving animals.
• Current miniaturized microscopes have limited fields of view, hindering multi-brain region imaging.
• A technological gap exists for advanced in vivo neural activity monitoring.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel miniaturized microscope with an expanded field of view.
• To enable simultaneous imaging of multiple brain regions in mice.
• To facilitate the study of neural dynamics during complex behaviors.

Main Methods:

• Development of the eXtra Large FOV Miniscope (MiniXL), a 3.5-gram device with a 3.5 mm field of view.
• Large-scale neuronal population recordings in the dorsal CA1 region of the hippocampus.
• Simultaneous multi-brain region imaging in bilateral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and nucleus accumbens (NAc).

Main Results:

• The MiniXL successfully captured large-scale neuronal population activity in the hippocampus.
• Demonstrated simultaneous imaging across bilateral mPFC and mPFC-NAc during social behavior.
• Achieved stable cell tracking across multiple days, showcasing long-term recording capabilities.

Conclusions:

• The MiniXL miniscope significantly expands the field of view for miniaturized microscopy.
• Enables unprecedented simultaneous multi-brain region recordings in freely behaving mice.
• The open-source nature of MiniXL aims to lower adoption barriers in the neuroscience community.