Since development of optogenetic stimulation paradigm, there has been several attempts to red shift the excitation maximum of the efficient blue-sensitive opsins. While there has been some success at the cost of altered light-activation kinetics, near-infrared optogenetic probe will be ideal for in-depth cell-specific stimulation of excitable cells in an organ. However, single-photon near-infrared optogenetics based stimulation will still limit precise probing and modulation of in-vivo neural circuits. In contrast, by virtue of non-linear nature of ultrafast light-matter interaction, high spatial precision in optogenetic activation can be achieved in addition to inherent cellular specificity and temporal resolution provided by the opsins. Here, we report use of non-linear optogenetics for stimulation of neurons in-vivo in mouse models. Advantage of using non-linear optogenetics for probing neuronal circuitry is discussed. Further, effectiveness of the non-diffracting optogenetic Bessel beam over classical Gaussian beam in a layered mouse-brain geometry is demonstrated using Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. This is corroborated by electrophysiological measurements in in-vivo mouse models. The large propagation distance, characteristics of Bessel beam is better suited for in-depth single as well as two-photon optogenetic stimulation.

Date Published: 17 February 2012
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 8207, Photonic Therapeutics and Diagnostics VIII, 820764 (17 February 2012); doi: 10.1117/12.916750

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8207:
Photonic Therapeutics and Diagnostics VIII
Anita Mahadevan-Jansen; Andreas Mandelis; Kenton W. Gregory M.D.; Nikiforos Kollias; Hyun Wook Kang; Henry Hirschberg M.D.; Melissa J. Suter; Brian Jet-Fei Wong M.D.; Justus F. Ilgner M.D.; Stephen Lam; Bodo E. Knudsen M.D.; Steen Madsen; E. Duco Jansen; Bernard Choi; Guillermo J. Tearney M.D.; Laura Marcu; Haishan Zeng; Matthew Brenner; Krzysztof Izdebski, Editor(s)