Optical technologies for large-scale and brain-wide recording of neuroactivity at cellular resolution

Understanding how sensory information is represented, processed and leads to generation of complex behavior is the major goal of systems neuroscience. However, the ability to detect and manipulate such large-scale functional circuits has been hampered by the lack of appropriate tools and methods that allow parallel and spatiotemporally specific recording of neuronal population activity. Our lab has consistently pushed the limits on speed, volume size, and depth at which neuronal population activity can be optically recorded at cellular resolution. These have led to the capability of whole-brain recording of neuroactivity at cellular resolution in small model systems as well as more recently near-simultaneous recording from over 1 million neurons distributed across both hemispheres and different layers of the mouse cortex at cellular resolution. I will present on our efforts on development of computational and other neurotechnology in this context and how their application can enable solving a new range of neurobiological questions.