title: In vivo optical imaging of physiological responses to photostimulation in human photoreceptors.
abstract: Noninvasive functional imaging of molecular and cellular processes of vision may have immense impact on research and clinical diagnostics. Although suitable intrinsic optical signals (IOSs) have been observed ex vivo and in immobilized animals in vivo, detecting IOSs of photoreceptor activity in living humans was cumbersome and time consuming. Here, we observed clear spatially and temporally resolved changes in the optical path length of the photoreceptor outer segment as a response to an optical stimulus in the living human eye. To witness these changes, we evaluated phase data obtained with a parallelized and computationally aberration-corrected optical coherence tomography system. The noninvasive detection of optical path length changes shows neuronal photoreceptor activity of single cones in living human retina, and therefore, it may provide diagnostic options in ophthalmology and neurology and could provide insights into visual phototransduction in humans.
authors.affiliation: Thorlabs GmbH, 23562 Luebeck, Germany; dhillmann@thorlabs.com.
authors.forename: Dierck
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7659-7550
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hillmann
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Optics, University of Lübeck, 23562 Luebeck, Germany.|Medical Laser Center Lübeck GmbH, 23562 Luebeck, Germany.
authors.forename: Hendrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Spahr
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Optics, University of Lübeck, 23562 Luebeck, Germany.|Medical Laser Center Lübeck GmbH, 23562 Luebeck, Germany.
authors.forename: Clara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pfäffle
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Optics, University of Lübeck, 23562 Luebeck, Germany.|Medical Laser Center Lübeck GmbH, 23562 Luebeck, Germany.
authors.forename: Helge
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sudkamp
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Optics, University of Lübeck, 23562 Luebeck, Germany.|Medical Laser Center Lübeck GmbH, 23562 Luebeck, Germany.
authors.forename: Gesa
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Franke
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Optics, University of Lübeck, 23562 Luebeck, Germany.|Medical Laser Center Lübeck GmbH, 23562 Luebeck, Germany.|Airway Research Center North, Member of the German Center for Lung Research, LungenClinic Grosshansdorf, 22927 Grosshansdorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Gereon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hüttmann
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D055620:Optical Phenomena; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012160:Retina / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology*; D017949:Retinal Cone Photoreceptor Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: adaptive optics; functional optical coherence tomography; imaging; intrinsic optical signals; phototransduction