Dynamic differential imaging of intrinsic optical responses in the retina

Abstract

High resolution monitoring of stimulus-evoked retinal neural activities is important for understanding retinal neural mechanisms, and for diagnosis of retinal disease and evaluation of treatment. Fast intrinsic optical signals (IOSs), which have the time courses comparable to retinal electrophysiological responses, hold the promise for high resolution imaging of retinal neural activities. However, application of fast IOS imaging has been hindered by contamination of slow, high magnitude, optical responses associated with transient hemodynamic and metabolic changes. We recently demonstrated the feasibility of separating fast IOSs from slow optical responses by combined dynamic differential imaging and high frequency flicker stimulation.