Confocal reflectance and two-photon microscopy studies of a songbird skull for preparation of transcranial imaging

We present experiments and analyses of confocal reflectance and two-photon microscopy studies of zebra finch skull samples. The thin and hollow structure of these birds' skulls is quite translucent, which can allow transcranial two-photon imaging for brain activation monitoring. However, the sk...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Biomedical Optics 2009-05, Vol.14 (3), p.034038-0340311
Main Authors: Abi-Haidar, Darine, Olivier, Thomas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activation
Algorithms
Animals
Biological Physics
Bones
Confocal
Finches - anatomy & histology
Imaging
Microscopy
Microscopy, Confocal - methods
Microscopy, Fluorescence, Multiphoton - methods
Models, Biological
multiphoton microscopy
Optics
Physics
Reflectance
reflectance confocal microscopy
Reflectivity
Refractometry
Rhodamines - chemistry
scattering coefficients
Skull
Skull - anatomy & histology
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Summary:We present experiments and analyses of confocal reflectance and two-photon microscopy studies of zebra finch skull samples. The thin and hollow structure of these birds' skulls is quite translucent, which can allow transcranial two-photon imaging for brain activation monitoring. However, the skull structure is also quite complex, with high refractive index changes on a macroscopic scale. These studies aim at exploring the geometrical and scattering properties of these skull samples with the use of several confocal microscopy contrasts. Moreover, the study of the axial reflectance exponential decay is used to estimate the scattering coefficients of the bone. Finally, two-photon imaging experiments of a fluorescent object located beneath the skull are carried out. It reveals that two-photon fluorescence can be collected through the skull with a strong signal. It also reveals that the spatial resolution loss is quite high and cannot be fully explained by the bulk scattering properties of the bone, but also by the presence of the high refractive index inhomogeneity of this pneumatic skull structure. Even if the optical properties of the skull are different during experiments, these preliminary studies are aimed at preparing and optimizing transcranial brain activation monitoring experiments on songbirds.
ISSN:1083-3668
1560-2281
DOI:10.1117/1.3155522