Dynamic optical clamp: A novel electrophysiology tool and a technique for closed-loop stimulation

Abstract

Optical methods of neuromodulation show great promise. Recent research has shown that optogenetic and electrical stimulation interact both in vitro and in vivo to facilitate action potentials. With standard electrophysiology approaches, it is not possible to directly compare the cell's response to a test pulse after an optical or electrical stimulation that lead to the same depolarisation. This paper describes the development of a new “dynamic optical clamp” technique, which aims to build on existing voltage clamp methods, but using light as the clamping input in place of electrical currents. We propose a technique based on combinations of optical and electrical stimulation to clamp membrane..