1. +32 16 322 672;2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium;3. Department of Biosystems, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium;4. Donders Institute, Radboud University, AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Abstract:
Optical brain stimulation gained a lot of attention in neuroscience due to its superior cell‐type specificity. In the design of illumination strategies, predicting the light propagation in a specific tissue is essential and requires knowledge of the optical properties of that tissue. We present the estimated absorption and reduced scattering in rodent brain tissue using non‐destructive contact spatially resolved spectroscopy (cSRS). The obtained absorption and scattering in the cortex, hippocampus and striatum are similar, but lower than in the thalamus, leading to a less deep but broader light penetration profile in the thalamus. Next, the light distribution was investigated for different stimulation protocols relevant for fiber‐optic based optogenetic experiments, using Monte Carlo simulation. A protocol specific analysis is proposed to evaluate the potential of thermally induced side effects.
