Neural activity patterns span over three orders-of-magnitude in both space and time. This presentation introduces a new versatile all-optical technique for neurophysiology that utilizes a novel label-free optical microscopy system called Superfast Polarization-sensitive Off-axis Full-field Optical Coherence Microscopy (SPoOF OCM). SPoOF OCM captures the changes to both the optical path length and birefringence induced by the millisecond-scale electrical activity of neurons. This multimodal response is imaged in a widefield configuration at 4000 frames per second, with a field-of-view of 200×200 µm^2, 1 µm transverse resolution, and 4.5 µm axial resolution. With an ability to capture responses spanning three orders-of-magnitude in both space and time, SPoOF OCM meets the exacting needs of a comprehensive neurophysiology tool, and overcomes existing limitations of traditional electrophysiology and fluorescence microscopy.
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