Extending two photon scanning microscopy for imaging on novel species: brain-wide in vivo imaging in Xenopus tadpoles

In neuroscience, two photon scanning microscopy is commonly used to record brain activity in species that differ greatly in brain size and their properties and distributions of neurons. Accordingly, tailoring the properties of the imaging system to the experimental model in question is critical. These include adjustments in the size of the field-of-view, the shape and curvature of the scan-plane, or adjustment in excitation PSF sizes. Here, we report our progress to optimising these and other imaging parameters for high-signal-to-noise imaging of whole-brain neuronal activity in the large nervous system of Xenopus laevis tadpoles with comparable quality compared to what is currently possible in juvenile zebrafish.