calcium imaging

Electrophysiology measures electrical activity directly, providing information about neuronal firing patterns, and can often be used in place of calcium imaging to study neuronal activity. However, electrophysiology typically has better temporal resolution than calcium imaging but lacks the spatial resolution of calcium imaging across large populations of neurons.

Optogenetics allows for targeted activation or inhibition of neurons, and calcium imaging can be used to read out the effects of this manipulation on calcium dynamics. Thus, the two techniques are used together.

Immunohistochemistry allows for the labeling of specific proteins or other molecules within cells and tissues, which can be combined with calcium imaging to correlate activity with cell type or expression of a particular protein.