We develop and build polarized light microscopes
Polarized light microscopy is a relatively novel technology in the area of brain imaging and applied only by a few labs worldwide to study brain architecture at the micro-scale. The measured birefringent signals comprise entangled information on both spatial fiber orientation and the local fiber density at the scale of single neurones.
PLI-microscopy to study brain architecture
Polarized Light imaging (PLI) is the most powerful method to bridge the resolution gap of the mesoscale-world described by methods like DT-MRI-techniques with the nanoscale-world of high-end microscopic technologies like serial two-photon excitation (STP), electron microscopy (EM) or classical highest resolution microscopy. PLI also helps to position the micro connections described by the nanoscale-world with its limited spatial expansion within the context of entire brains. In this respect, a huge number of details generated by PLI are already at the base of numerous unexpected discoveries and many more are waiting to be discovered in the short future.