Optical tools towards the improvement of optogenetic stimulation

Abstract

Optogenetics is a powerful addition to the spectrum of techniques available in neuroscience to investigate neurophysiology and unravel how neural circuit structure is related to circuit function. This technique relies on introducing lightsensitive proteins or molecules as actuators to transduce an optical signal into a physiological perturbation of a living cell in vitro or in a living animal. To date, optogenetics has allowed remote control of neural activity in living and awake animals at different scales from single cells to complex networks of neurons to the investigation of animal behaviours. This wide range of experimental scales has been accomplished through joint progress on engineering the biological sensors and the optical design of instruments capable of manipulating with cellular spatial precision and millisecond temporal resolution.