Tools that allow neuroscientists to record and quantify functional activity within the living brain are in great demand. Traditionally, researchers have used techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, but this method cannot record neural activity with high spatial resolution or in moving subjects. In recent years, a technology called optogenetics has shown considerable success in recording neural activity from animals in real time with single-neuron resolution. Optogenetic tools use light to control neurons and record signals in tissues that are genetically modified to express light-sensitive and fluorescent proteins. However, existing technologies for imaging light signals from the brain have drawbacks in their size, imaging speed, or contrast that limit their applications in experimental neuroscience.
