Understanding brain structure and function,and the complex relationships bet ween them,is one of the grand challenges of contemporary sciences.Thanks to their fexiblity,optical techniques could be the key to explore t...Understanding brain structure and function,and the complex relationships bet ween them,is one of the grand challenges of contemporary sciences.Thanks to their fexiblity,optical techniques could be the key to explore this complex network.In this manuscript,we briefly review recent adv ancements in optical methods applied to three main issues:anatomy,plasticity and func-tionality.We describe novel implement ations of light-sheet microscopy to resolve neuronal anat-omy in whole fixed brains with cellular resolution.Moving to liv ing samples,we show how real-time dynamics of brain rewiring can be visualized through two-photon microscopy with the spatial resolution of single synaptic contacts.The plasticity of the injured brain can also be dissected through cut ting edge optical methods that specifically ablate single neuronal processes.Finally,we report how nonlinear microscopy in combination with novel voltage sensitive dyes allow optical registrations of action potential across a population of neurons opening promising prospective in understanding brain functionality.The knowledge acquired from these complementary optical methods may provide a deeper comprehension of the brain and of its unique features.展开更多
基金The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Frame-work Programme(FP7/2007-2013)under Grant agreements Nos.228334 and 241526This research project has also been supported by Human Frontier Science Program research grant(RGP0027/2009)the ItalianMinistry for Education,University and Research in the framework of the Flagship Pro-ject Nanomax and by Italian Ministry of Health in the framework of the"Stem cells call for proposals".This research has been carried out in the framework of the research activities of ICON foundation sup-ported by"Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze".
文摘Understanding brain structure and function,and the complex relationships bet ween them,is one of the grand challenges of contemporary sciences.Thanks to their fexiblity,optical techniques could be the key to explore this complex network.In this manuscript,we briefly review recent adv ancements in optical methods applied to three main issues:anatomy,plasticity and func-tionality.We describe novel implement ations of light-sheet microscopy to resolve neuronal anat-omy in whole fixed brains with cellular resolution.Moving to liv ing samples,we show how real-time dynamics of brain rewiring can be visualized through two-photon microscopy with the spatial resolution of single synaptic contacts.The plasticity of the injured brain can also be dissected through cut ting edge optical methods that specifically ablate single neuronal processes.Finally,we report how nonlinear microscopy in combination with novel voltage sensitive dyes allow optical registrations of action potential across a population of neurons opening promising prospective in understanding brain functionality.The knowledge acquired from these complementary optical methods may provide a deeper comprehension of the brain and of its unique features.
