A new high-tech lens allows scientists to watch nine different types of brain cells 'talking' to each other at the same time in a moving animal.
April 14, 2026
Original Paper
Functional imaging of nine distinct neuronal populations under a miniscope in freely behaving animals
bioRxiv · 2023.12.13.571122
The Takeaway
Previously, we could only see one or two cell types at once, like watching a play with only two characters. Jumping to nine types lets us see the entire 'neural orchestra' and understand how the whole brain coordinates behavior.
From the abstract
Head-mounted miniscopes have enabled functional fluorescence imaging in freely moving animals. However, current technology is limited to recording at most two spectrally distinct fluorophores, severely restricting the number of identifiable cell types. Here we introduce multiplexed neuronal imaging (Neuroplex), a pipeline combining miniscope Ca2+ recordings with in vivo multiplexed confocal spectral imaging to distinguish nine projection-defined neuronal subtypes through the same GRIN lens. By c