Two-Photon Microscopy for Chemical Neuroscience

Microscopes using nonlinear excitation of chromophores with pulsed near-IR light can generate highly localized foci of molecules in the electronic singlet state that are concentrated in volumes of less than 1 fL. The three-dimensional confinement of excitation arises from the simultaneous absorption of two IR photons of approximately half the energy required for linear excitation. Two-photon microscopy is especially useful for two types of interrogation of neural processes. The first is uncaging of signaling molecules such as glutamate, because stimulation is so refined it can be used to mimic normal unitary synaptic levels. In addition, uncaging allows complete control of the timing and position of stimulation, so the two-photon light beam provides the chemical neuroscientist with an optical conductor's baton, which can command synaptic activity at will. A second powerful feature of two-photon microscopy is that when used for fluorescence imaging it enables the visualization of cellular structure and function in living animals at depths far beyond that possible with normal confocal microscopes. In this review, I provide a survey of the many important applications of two-photon microscopy in these two fields of neuroscience and suggest some areas for future technical development.