Head-mountable high speed camera for optical neural recording

We report a head-mountable CMOS camera for recording rapid neuronal activity in freely moving rodents using fluorescent activity reporters. This small, lightweight camera is capable of detecting small changes in light intensity (0.2% ΔI/I) at 500 fps. The camera has a resolution of 32 × 32, sensitivity of 0.62 V/lx s, conversion gain of 0.52 μV/e− and well capacity of 2.1 Me−. The camera, containing intensity offset subtraction circuitry within the imaging chip, is part of a miniaturized epi-fluorescent microscope and represents a first generation, mobile scientific-grade, physiology imaging camera.

• Custom low power, high SNR image sensor fabricated and housed in a light weight system because no image sensor currently available meets design requirements.
• Enables systems that can be head-mounted onto freely moving and awake rodents for wide field imaging of optical probes.
• Sensor performs similarly to much larger, fixed experimental setups in detecting optical signals.
• Also offers ΔI/I on-chip, reducing size and power requirements.