Non-invasive study of nerve fibres using laser interference microscopy

This paper presents the results of a laser interference microscopy study of the morphology and dynamical properties of myelinated nerve fibres. Wedescribe the principles of operation of the phase-modulated laser interference microscope and show how this novel technique allows us to obtain information non-invasively about the internal structure of different regions of a nerve fibre. We also analyse the temporal variations in the internal optical properties in order to detect the rhythmic activity in the nerve fibre at different time scales and to shed light on the underlying biological processes. Weobserve pronounced frequencies in the dynamics of the optical properties and suggest that the oscillatory modes have similar origin in different regions, but different strengths and mutual modulation properties.