Endoscopic cellular imaging of astrocyte-neuron interactions in vivo

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The brain is the most complex organ of the human body. A major challenge is to understand how billions of brain cells communicate and organize in networks to produce thoughts and behaviours. Major breakthroughs were made using imaging methods. With existing tools in our laboratories, we record and visualize the activity of cells in large networks and even at the subcellular level such as dendritic spines. However, a major impediment is that resolution is obtained at the expense of integrity whereby reduced preparations such as brain slices or cell culture must be used. In addition, understanding of nervous functions requires the use of intact organisms. This is in part achieved with functional brain imaging using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET). However, neuronal activation is measured indirectly through the haemodynamic or metabolic changes and only activation of neuronal populations are studied. Thus, there is a major gap between our understanding of the cellular and network mechanisms and function of neuron populations owing to the major difference in spatial resolution.