Membrane Potential Imaging in the Nervous System and Heart

Martin J. Bishop, Gernot Plank, Bishop, Martin J., Plank, Gernot

Computational models have been recently applied to simulate and better understand the nature of fluorescent photon scattering and optical signal distortion during cardiac optical imaging. The goal of such models is both to provide a useful post-processing tool to facilitate a more accurate and faithful comparison between computational simulations of electrical activity and experiments, as well as providing essential insight into the mechanisms underlying this distortion, suggesting ways in which it may be controlled or indeed utilised to maximise the information derived from the recorded fluorescent signal. Here, we present different modelling methodologies developed and used in the field to simulate both the explicit processes involved in optical signal synthesis and the resulting consequences of the effects of photon scattering within the myocardium upon the optically-detected signal. We focus our attentions to two main types of modelling approaches used to simulate light transport in cardiac tissue, specifically continuous (reaction-diffusion) and discrete stochastic (Monte Carlo) methods. For each method, we provide both a summary of the necessary methodological details of such models, in addition to brief reviews of relevant application studies which have sought to apply these methods to elucidate important information regarding experimentally-recorded optical signals under different circumstances.