Copyright © 2010 Thomas Knopfel. Last updated March 2010
Information processing in the brain involves electrical and chemical signals which are spatially confined at the subcellular level and which occur at the time scale of milliseconds. While changes of membrane voltage and concentrations of various intracellular signaling chemicals are well characterized at the level of single cells, much less experimental data are available on the electrical and chemical signaling of multiple interacting neurons.
To bridge the gap between our understanding of signals in single neurons and of network
theories, we need to monitor the dynamics of membrane voltage and chemical signals
in neuronal circuits at many sites simultaneously and with high temporal resolution.
With
this viewpoint, we are developing and applying innovative optical imaging techniques
based on environmental-
Optogenetic imaging of neuronal circuit dynamics