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Two‐photon imaging of dendritic spine development in the mouse cortex
Author(s) -
Pan Feng,
Gan WenBiao
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
developmental neurobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.716
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1932-846X
pISSN - 1932-8451
DOI - 10.1002/dneu.20630
Subject(s) - dendritic spine , neuroscience , biology , two photon excitation microscopy , postsynaptic potential , excitatory postsynaptic potential , cortex (anatomy) , spine (molecular biology) , cerebral cortex , dendritic filopodia , neuroplasticity , fluorescence , microbiology and biotechnology , optics , physics , biochemistry , receptor , hippocampal formation , inhibitory postsynaptic potential
Dendritic spines are the postsynaptic sites of most excitatory synapses in the mammalian brain. With the advent of two‐photon microscopy and transgenic mice expressing fluorescent proteins, dendritic spines can now be imaged in the living cerebral cortex over time scales ranging from seconds to years. Recent studies with this in vivo imaging approach have begun to provide important insights into the development and plasticity of dendritic spines in the intact brain. Here, we review these studies and discuss technical requirements for image acquisition. We envision that intravital two‐photon imaging at the level of individual synapses will greatly expand our current understandings of how neuronal networks are assembled and modified throughout life. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol, 2008