Biomedical Optics Meeting

June 18, 2026: Loes Ettema has presented her work at the First Dutch Biomedical Optics Meeting at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. Loes talked about “Nerve fiber mapping on brain tissue surfaces using backscattered light imaging”.

Nerve fiber mapping on brain tissue surfaces using backscattered light imaging

Our brain contains a highly complex network of nerve fibers. Mapping this network with high precision is essential for better understanding brain diseases and for navigating during brain surgeries. Computational scattered light imaging (ComSLI) exploits the anisotropic scattering by fibrous structures to determine nerve fiber orientations, even in regions with densely interwoven and crossing fibers. Up to now, ComSLI has only been applied to micrometer-thin tissue sections, significantly limiting its use to histological tissue analysis. New results show that ComSLI can also be applied in backscattering mode, allowing for measurements on brain tissue surfaces without microtome slicing. Here, we present recent findings on various brain tissue samples, showing the technique’s ability to map nerve fiber orientations in backscattering mode. In the long term, this will help to simplify sample preparation processes and pave the way for new applications, such as intraoperative visualization of nerve fiber pathways.