title: Voltage-Sensitive Dye Imaging of Population Signals in Brain Slices.
abstract: In a bright-field measurement from a vertebrate brain stained by superfusing a solution of the dye over the surface, each pixel in a camera receives light from a substantial number (thousands) of neurons and neuronal processes (population signals). Because of scattering and out-of-focus light, this will be true even if the pixel size corresponds to a small area of the brain. In this situation, the voltage-sensitive dye signal will be a population average of the change in membrane potential of all of these neurons and processes. Many investigators have published voltage-sensitive dye imaging studies of population activities in brain slices. Their methods, including choice of dyes, illumination intensity, and imaging device, vary across a large spectrum. Here we present a protocol for visualizing spatiotemporal patterns in rodent neocortex in vitro. Detecting these patterns requires high-sensitivity imaging in single trials, because averaging will obscure the complex dynamics of the spatiotemporal patterns.
authors.forename: Bradley
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Brian S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Wolff
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Lawrence B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Chun X
authors.initials: CX
authors.lastname: Bleau
authors.forename: J-Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D056969:Voltage-Sensitive Dye Imaging / Q000379:methods*