Super-Resolving Approaches Suitable for Brain Imaging Applications

Usage of imaging in the optical regime in biological research established itself as a fundamental tool to reveal answers to critical scientific questions in that field. Specialized techniques such as Golgi’s method, the Nissl staining technique, and others led further to remarkable findings in the fields of brain imaging and neuroscience research. Pushing modern research to the next level requires spatial and temporal resolution capabilities which are better than the conventional limits of optical imaging. Hence, a fascinating new world of super-resolved imaging that achieves higher-resolving capabilities, while still using the same wavelengths, has emerged. This chapter will first cover the historical development of super-resolution microscopy, while relating it to applications and development in brain imaging and neuroscience research. Further, we cover many of the current promising super-resolution methods and point to applicative achievements that may prove to be highly useful in the field of brain imaging. The super-resolving concept we aim to address includes among others structured illumination microscopy, stimulated emission depletion microscopy, photo-activated localization microscopy, stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy, near-field scanning microscopy, and alternative new labeled and label-free concepts.