Mesoscale volumetric light-field (MesoLF) imaging of neuroactivity across cortical areas at 18 Hz

Various implementations of mesoscopes provide optical access for calcium imaging across multi-millimeter fields of view in the mammalian brain; however, capturing the activity of the neuronal population within such fields of view near-simultaneously and in a volumetric fashion has remained challenging as approaches for imaging scattering brain tissues typically are based on sequential acquisition. Here we present a modular, mesoscale light-field (MesoLF) imaging hardware and software solution that allows recording from thousands of neurons within volumes of empty set 4 x 0.2 mm, located at up to 350 mu m depth in the mouse cortex, at 18 volumes per second and an effective voxel rate of similar to 40 megavoxels per second. Using our optical design and computational approach we show recording of similar to 10,000 neurons across multiple cortical areas in mice using workstation-grade computing resources.

Automated summary

Various implementations of mesoscopes provide optical access for calcium imaging across multi-millimeter fields of view in the mammalian brain. However, capturing the activity of the neuronal population within such fields of view near-simultaneously and in a volumetric fashion has remained challenging. Here, we present a modular, mesoscale light-field (MesoLF) imaging hardware and software solution that allows recording from thousands of neurons within volumes of 4 x 0.2 mm at up to 350 μm depth in the mouse cortex, at a high speed and voxel rate.