Optical brain imaging using a semi-transparent organic light-emitting diode

We report optical brain imaging using a semi-transparent organic light-emitting diode (OLED) based on the orange light-emitting polymer (LEP) Livilux PDO-124. The OLED serves as a compact, extended light source which is capable of uniformly illuminating the cortical surface when placed across a burr hole in the skull. Since all layers of the OLED are substantially transparent to photons with energies below the optical gap of the LEP, light emitted or reflected by the cortical surface may be efficiently transmitted through the OLED and into the objective lens of a low magnification microscope ('macroscope'). The OLED may be placed close to the cortical surface, providing efficient coupling of incident light into the brain cavity; furthermore, the macroscope may be placed close to the upper surface of the OLED, enabling efficient collection of reflected/emitted light from the cortical surface. Hence the use of a semi-transparent OLED simplifies the optical setup, while at the same time maintaining high sensitivity. The OLED is applied here to one of the most demanding forms of optical brain imaging, namely extrinsic optical imaging involving a voltage sensitive dye (VSD). Specifically, we carry out functional imaging of the primary visual cortex (V1) of a rat, using the voltage sensitive dye RH-1691 as a reporter. Imaging through the OLED light-source, we are able to resolve small (~ 0.1 %) changes in the fluorescence intensity of the dye due to changes in the neuronal membrane potential following a visual stimulus. Results are obtained on a single trial basis -- i.e. without averaging over multiple measurements -- with a time-resolution of ten milliseconds.