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Neurophotonics was launched in 2014 coinciding with the launch of the BRAIN Initiative focused on development of technologies for advancement of neuroscience. For the last seven years, Neurophotonics' agenda has been well aligned with this focus on neurotechnologies featuring new optical methods and tools applicable to brain studies. While the BRAIN Initiative 2.0 is pivoting towards applications of these novel tools in the quest to understand the brain, this status report reviews an extensive and diverse toolkit of novel methods to explore brain function that have emerged from the BRAIN Initiative and related large-scale efforts for measurement and manipulation of brain structure and function. Here, we focus on neurophotonic tools mostly applicable to animal studies. A companion report, scheduled to appear later this year, will cover diffuse optical imaging methods applicable to noninvasive human studies. For each domain, we outline the current state-of-the-art of the respective technologies, identify the areas where innovation is needed, and provide an outlook for the future directions.

Non-degenerate two-photon excitation (ND-TPE) has been explored in two-photon excitation microscopy. However, a systematic study of the efficiency of ND-TPE to guide the selection of fluorophore excitation wavelengths is missing. We measured the relative non-degenerate two-photon absorption cross-section (ND-TPACS) of several commonly used fluorophores (two fluorescent proteins and three small-molecule dyes) and generated 2-dimensional ND-TPACS spectra. We observed that the shape of a ND-TPACS spectrum follows that of the corresponding degenerate two-photon absorption cross-section (D-TPACS) spectrum, but is higher in magnitude. We found that the observed enhancements are higher than theoretical predictions.

Unravelling the volcanic history of the enigmatic lunar farside is essential for understanding the hemispheric dichotomy of the Moon 1-3 . Cratering chronology established for the lunar nearside has been used to suggest long-lived volcanism on the farside of the Moon 3,4 , but without sample verification. Here we report two newly recognized episodes of basaltic volcanism with Pb-Pb dating for basalt fragments returned by the Chang'e-6 mission. One high-Al basalt fragment dated at 4,203 ± 4 million years ago (Ma) has a source 238 U/ 204 Pb ratio (µ value) of ~1,620, implying a KREEP-rich (K, rare earth elements, and P) source for this oldest-known occurrence of basaltic volcanism among returned samples. The main volcanic episode of the Chang'e-6 basalt documents a surprisingly young eruption age of 2,807 ± 3 Ma, which is not recognized from the nearside of the Moon. The initial Pb isotope compositions of these younger basalts indicate derivation from a source with a µ value of ~360, indicating a KREEP-poor mantle source. Mare volcanism on the lunar farside thus persisted for >1.4 billion years even with a shift to a source depleted in heat-producing elements. The consistency between the 2.8-billion-year basalt age and its crater-counting age indicates that the cratering chronology model established for the lunar nearside is also applicable to the farside of the Moon., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)