MIT develops lightning fast 3D optical neuroimaging system

Based on principles of light-field microscopy, an international team of researchers has created a novel molecular imaging technique that allows three-dimensional scenes of an entire brain’s neural networks in milliseconds flat, officials from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced May 19.

Scientists from MIT in Cambridge, Mass., the University of Vienna, as well as the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, also in Vienna, have designed an imaging system that maps the neural activity of a living organism in a 3D cine format.

“Looking at the activity of just one neuron in the brain doesn't tell you how that information is being computed,” remarked Ed Boyden, associate professor of biological engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at MIT. “If you want to understand how information is being integrated from sensation all the way to action, you have to see the entire brain.”

The research team put their technique to the test with a recent study of the entire brain of a zebra fish larva and the entire nervous system of a Caenorhabditis elegans worm, ideal for this research. It is the only organism that has neural networks that have been mapped out previously in order to test the new system, which works by measuring light angles. This is the first instance of high-speed, large-volume, 3D and whole-brain neuro light-field microscopy. The sample produces somewhere around 400 points of light that shoot toward a series of lenses. These points of light are united with a special algorithm to produce a 3D pattern of neuronal activity.

“We don't really know, for any brain disorder, the exact set of cells involved,” added Boyden. “The ability to survey activity throughout a nervous system may help pinpoint the cells or networks that are involved with a brain disorder, leading to new ideas for therapies.”

The scientists are also devising a plan to introduce the technique to the realm of optogenetics, which combines optical imaging with genetic engineering that could potentially control specific neural firing.