Abstract
Many people avoid sudden death by ischemic brain strokes but suffer from such disabilities as aphasia and/or paralysis. For such patients, we must study the mechanisms underlying the remodeling of neuronal circuits during the recovery phase to achieve good clinical cares. For this purpose, an in vivo imaging technique, which uses two-photon laser microscopy (TPLM), is currently the only tool powerful enough to visualize the morphology and activity of individual neurons buried deep in opaque brain tissue. Here, I review recent studies of brain stroke that use TPLM and other laser techniques. Techniques that would be ideal for in vivo imaging study are also presented. By presenting the ideas that biomedical researchers dream of, experts of laser techniques could try to develop new techniques that would be used in realizing such dream.
