Fig. 1
From: Cortex-wide neural interfacing via transparent polymer skulls
Digitally generating See-Shells. a The dorsal surface of the mouse skull is profiled using a computer numerical controlled mill integrated into the stereotaxic instrument. This skull surface profile is used to interpolate a three-dimensional (3D) surface. The 3D surface is used as a template to design morphologically conformant transparent implants (See-Shells), consisting of a 3D-printed polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) frame, onto which a thin, optically clear and flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film is bonded. A titanium head-plate fastened to the frame provides mechanical support for head-fixation and a 3D-printed cap protects the implant and underlying brain tissue. Photograph of a fully fabricated and assembled See-Shell is illustrated on the right. Scale bar indicates 1 cm. b Lateral point spread functions (PSFs) of 200 nm yellow green (YG) fluorescent beads imaged with a ×40 (1.15 NA) objective through the PET film (left) and glass coverslip (right). Black curved line indicates Gaussian fit to the intensity measurements. c Axial PSFs of 200 nm YG fluorescent beads imaged with the same objective as in b, through the PET film (left) and glass coverslip (right). Black curved line indicates Gaussian fit to the intensity measurements. d Bar plots overlaid with the dot plots of lateral (top) and axial (bottom) full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the PSF measured through the PET film and #1.5 glass coverslip (n = 15 measurements in each of three PET films, and n = 5 measurements in glass coverslip). a.u. arbitrary unit, n.s. not significant. Error bars indicate s.d.
