Optical imaging of neurons in the crab stomatogastric ganglion with voltage-sensitive dyes.

Voltage-sensitive dye imaging of neurons is a key methodology for the understanding of how neuronal networks are organised and how the simultaneous activity of participating neurons leads to the emergence of the integral functionality of the network. Here we present the methodology of application of this technique to identified pattern generating neurons in the crab stomatogastric ganglion. We demonstrate the loading of these neurons with the fluorescent voltage-sensitive dye Di-8-ANEPPQ and we show how to image the activity of dye loaded neurons using the MiCAM02 high speed and high resolution CCD camera imaging system. We demonstrate the analysis of the recorded imaging data using the BVAna imaging software associated with the MiCAM02 imaging system. The simultaneous voltage-sensitive dye imaging of the detailed activity of multiple neurons in the crab stomatogastric ganglion applied together with traditional electrophysiology techniques (intracellular and extracellular recordings) opens radically new opportunities for the understanding of how central pattern generator neural networks work.