METHOD FOR SCANNING ALONG A 3-DIMENSIONAL LINE AND METHOD FOR SCANNING A REGION OF INTEREST BY SCANNING A PLURALITY OF 3-DIMENSIONAL LINES

The invention relates to a method for correcting motion artifacts of in vivo fluorescence measurements by scanning a plurality of somata with a 3D laser scanning microscope having acousto-optic deflectors for deflecting a focus spot of a laser beam, the method comprising:selecting a scanning point within each somata,extending each scanning point to a plurality of parallel, substantially straight drift lines defining cuboides, preferably having sizes matched to the diameters of the somata, which cuboides are substantially centred on the given scanning points,scanning each drift line by focusing the laser beam at one end of the drift line and providing linear or non-linear chirp signals for the acoustic frequencies in the deflectors for continuously moving the focus spot along the drift line,repeating the measurement to obtain a time series of the scanned cuboids, andcorrecting motion artifacts using the time series.The invention further relates to a method for correcting motion artifacts of in vivo fluorescence measurements by scanning a 3D trajectory by extending each scanning point of the 3D trajectory to a plurality of parallel substantially straight drift lines which define a substantially continuous volume containing the 3D trajectory.