All Fired Up

On average, the human brain contains 86 billion neurons, each sending messages to one another that allow us to think, feel and do. Untangling this dense network reveals how our brains function. For scientists, capturing the complex connections between neurons with current techniques is a balancing act between resolution, scale and speed. With distant regions of the brain simultaneously firing, resolution is compromised to account for the large structure. Yet workarounds that piece images together compromise speed. To overcome these limitations, researchers have developed a new protocol, called light beads microscopy. Traditional techniques send a focused laser pulse at a target, which emits a fluorescent light indicative of neuroactivity. In light beads microscopy, this laser pulse is broken down into sub pulses, that can travel to different depths in the brain. The technique has yielded this crystal clear view of one million neurons firing near-simultaneously (highlighted in yellow) in a mouse brain.

Written by Katy Pallister

Katy Pallister

Writer

Katy is a freelance science educator, presenter, writer and producer based in London. She is a former Engagement and Events Officer at the MRC LMS.

• Video by Alipasha Vaziri
• Laboratory of Neurotechnology and Biophysics, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
• Video copyright held by the original authors
• Research by Jeffrey Demas and colleagues published published in Nature Methods, August 2021