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Stereomicroscopy in Neuroanatomy

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Neurohistology and Imaging Techniques

Part of the book series: Neuromethods ((NM,volume 153))

Abstract

The main benefits of the stereomicroscope are that it is designed in a modular motif, allowing for a wide range of accessories such as stands, eyepieces, objectives, and illuminating bases for a wide variety of contrast enhancement techniques. Often utilized to study the surfaces of specimens, the stereomicroscope frequently uses incident (reflected) illumination, permitting the observation of specimens that would normally be too thick or opaque. Translucent and transparent objects can be successfully imaged with a number of transmitted illumination methods depending on the observer’s needs, and fluorescence stereomicroscopes are being increasingly used for three-dimensional observation. An excellent working distance, ranging from 3 to 5 cm to even 20 cm in certain models, and wide field of view that these models feature, are critical factors in the observation of a far-ranging variety of biological specimens. Examples of nervous and other tissues are presented in this review, for example, retina in living fish, paraneurons in shrimp, innervation of murine heart, and YFP-expressing regenerating nerves in the cornea of transgenic mice.

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Change history

  • 24 September 2021

    The online version of this book had multiple errors as specified below:

Notes

  1. 1.

    CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000729

Abbreviations

CMO:

Common main objective

f-number:

A parameter inversely proportional to NA of the objective

FN:

Field number (of the eyepiece)

NA:

Numerical aperture

YFP:

Yellow fluorescent protein

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Acknowledgments

The first four coauthors are grateful to the late professor Michael Wesley Davidson (1950–2015). The present chapter is largely derived from the MicroscopyU(niversity) website [6] that was his brainchild. RP acknowledges support via Ministry of Education projects: Chiral Microscopy (LTC17012), CzechBioImaging (LM2015062), and ChemBioDrug.Footnote 1

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Department of Biological Science, The Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Erin E. Wilson & Michael W. Davidson

  2. Nikon Instruments Inc., Melville, NY, USA

    William Chambers

  3. Institute of Physiology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

    Radek Pelc

  4. Institute of Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

    Radek Pelc

  5. Avimo Precision Instruments, Optem International, Fairport, NY, USA

    Paul Nothnagle

  6. Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Radek Pelc

Authors
  1. Erin E. Wilson
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  2. William Chambers
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  3. Radek Pelc
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  4. Paul Nothnagle
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  5. Michael W. Davidson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Radek Pelc .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Czech Academy of Sciences and Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Radek Pelc

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    Wolfgang Walz

  3. Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    J. Ronald Doucette

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Wilson, E.E., Chambers, W., Pelc, R., Nothnagle, P., Davidson, M.W. (2020). Stereomicroscopy in Neuroanatomy. In: Pelc, R., Walz, W., Doucette, J.R. (eds) Neurohistology and Imaging Techniques. Neuromethods, vol 153. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0428-1_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0428-1_9

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-0426-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-0428-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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