A Holographic Module for Multiphoton Microscopes in Neuroscience

 描述（由申请人提供）：提高我们对大脑功能电路的理解对我们理解心理健康以及意识和计算等领域具有重要和多方面的影响。在过去的十年中，光学技术已经出现，允许记录和控制目标神经元进行脑映射，其中许多最好的技术采用多光子显微镜与空间光调制器（SLM）技术和复杂的算法来塑造光和分析越来越大的神经微电路在三维（3D）。SLM可以任意塑造光的波前，以在3D中创建多个独立的目标光束来控制神经元组，所研究的神经元的最大数量主要受SLM上的激光功率的限制。由于SLM可以模拟几乎任何光学元件，这些多功能工具在并入显微镜时还提供额外的功能，例如自适应像差校正和远程聚焦。尽管潜在的SLM革命性的神经科学中使用的显微镜，它们的采用仍然受到限制的困难，在将SLM到昂贵的多光子显微镜平台所使用的研究人员和SLM控制集成到显微镜软件的复杂性。在第二阶段的工作中，博尔德非线性系统（BNS）和Darcy Peterka博士以及哥伦比亚大学的Yuste实验室将通过为现有的多光子显微镜开发一个用户友好的螺栓连接SLM模块来解决这一障碍，沿着将SLM完全软件集成到开源和商业显微镜软件中。这项工作将利用在Pocketscope第一阶段开发过程中获得的知识，Pocketscope是一种便携式低成本SLM显微镜，用于简单的体外神经科学研究，并整合了来自一系列行业合作伙伴和神经科学领导者的密切反馈。作为这项工作的一部分，BNS还将提高SLM的速度、功率处理和可靠性，并利用其战略商业合作伙伴Meadowlark Optics降低SLM成本并提高软件集成度。该项目的成功完成将导致新的基于SLM的显微镜模块，平台独立的软件集成和改进的SLM加入第一阶段Pocketscope，以提供一套强大的工具，每个工具都有自己的影响和商业利基，能够改变神经网络的光学探索。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Improving our understanding of the functional circuitry of the brain has important and manifold implications for our understanding of mental health, as well as fields like consciousness and computing. In the last decade, optical techniques have arisen that allow both recording and control of targeted neurons for brain mapping, and many of the best of these techniques employ multiphoton microscopes with spatial light modulator (SLM) technology and complex algorithms to shape the light and analyze increasingly large neural microcircuits in three-dimensions (3D). SLMs can arbitrarily shape the wavefront of light to create multiple independently targeted beams in 3D to control groups of neurons, with the maximum number of studied neurons being limited primarily by the laser power on the SLM. Because the SLM can mimic nearly any optical element, these versatile tools also provide additional capabilities when incorporated into microscopes, such as adaptive aberration correction and remote focusing. Despite the potential for SLMs to revolutionize the microscopes used in neuroscience, their adoption remains limited by the difficulty in incorporating the SLM into the expensive multiphoton microscope platforms used by investigators and by the complexity of integrating SLM control into the microscopy software. In this Phase II effort, Boulder Nonlinear Systems (BNS) and Dr. Darcy Peterka and the Yuste laboratory at Columbia University will address this barrier by developing a user-friendly bolt-on SLM module for existing multiphoton microscopes along with full software integration of the SLM into both open-source and commercial microscopy software. This work will leverage knowledge gained during the Phase I development of the Pocketscope, a portable and low-cost SLM microscope for simple in vitro neuroscience studies, and integrate close feedback from a range of industry partners and leaders in neuroscience. As part of this work, BNS will also improve the speed, power handling, and reliability of the SLMs and utilize their strategic commercial partner, Meadowlark Optics, to bring down SLM cost and improve software integration. Successful completion of this project will result in the new SLM-based microscope module, platform- indpendent software integration, and improved SLM joining the Phase I Pocketscope to provide a suite of powerful tools, each with their own impact and commercial niche, capable of transforming the optical exploration of neural networks.