Full-field interferometric imaging of neuron deformation during action potential (Conference Presentation)

We report the full-field imaging of the mechanical deformations accompanying the action potential in primary cortical neurons using ultrafast quantitative phase imaging (QPI) with a temporal resolution of 0.1 ms and a membrane displacement sensitivity of <0.2 nm per pixel. The average displacements were ~0.7 nm on cell somas and ~0.5 nm on neurites. Finite element modeling based on the 3D shape extracted from confocal imaging and on scaling of the surface tension with trans-membrane voltage yielded the deformation map during action potential, which matched the features of the experimental results, including the displacement amplitude, time course, and spatial distribution.