Structured-illumination miniscope for optically sectioned calcium imaging and real-time neural decoding

• Single-photon miniscopes support large-scale calcium imaging in freely behaving animals but suffer from out-of-focus background fluorescence that lowers image contrast and single-cell signal fidelity.¹
• Multiphoton imaging reduces that background problem but remains costly and complex for many labs.¹
• Researchers introduce a structured-illumination miniscope that weighs under 3 g and is designed as a low-cost alternative.¹
• The device delivers optical sectioning during calcium imaging in freely behaving mice.¹
• Optical sectioning is implemented via HiLo imaging using a simple Ronchi grating and time multiplexing.¹
• The system is aimed at real-time neural decoding from single-photon calcium signals.¹
• The work is a methods preprint posted on bioRxiv Neuroscience (doi: 10.64898/2026.07.13.738146).^{1 1}

Footnotes

1. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.13.738146v1?rss=1 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸