{"id":226604,"date":"2025-12-06T00:25:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T06:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/miniature-microscope-captures-real-time-voltage-signals-in-awake-animals"},"modified":"2025-12-06T00:25:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T06:25:34","slug":"miniature-microscope-captures-real-time-voltage-signals-in-awake-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/miniature-microscope-captures-real-time-voltage-signals-in-awake-animals","title":{"rendered":"Miniature microscope captures real-time voltage signals in awake animals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/miniature-microscope-captures-real-time-voltage-signals-in-awake-animals.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Researchers have built a tiny, lightweight microscope that captures neuron activity with unprecedented speed that can be used in freely moving animals. The new tool could give scientists a more complete view of how brain cells process information during natural behavior.<\/p>\n<p>The microscope is designed to image <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2022-11-neuroscientists-illuminate-brain-cells-deep.html?utm_source=embeddings&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=internal\" rel=\"related\">genetically encoded voltage indicators <\/a>\u2014fluorescent dyes that rapidly change brightness when a neuron fires\u2014through a small window in the skull while the animal is awake.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnlike most miniature microscopes that track slower calcium signals, ours captures electrical spikes at hundreds of frames per second,\u201d said Emily Gibson from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. \u201cThis makes it possible to capture the moment a neuron fires as well as the quieter signals that build up inside neurons before firing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers have built a tiny, lightweight microscope that captures neuron activity with unprecedented speed that can be used in freely moving animals. The new tool could give scientists a more complete view of how brain cells process information during natural behavior. The microscope is designed to image genetically encoded voltage indicators \u2014fluorescent dyes that rapidly [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226604\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}