Ultrasensitive voltage imaging reveals distinct electrical microdomains in neurons

Abstract

For the brain to compute, electrical signals must propagate over the membranes of individual neurons, connecting synaptic inputs to synaptic outputs1. Complex neuronal morphologies coupled with the spatial organization of synaptic inputs and outputs enable diverse voltage transformations that underlie cell-type specific computations2,3. However, measuring these transformations in vivo has remained challenging, leaving a crucial gap in our mechanistic understanding of single neuron computation. Here, we develop ASAP7y, a genetically encoded voltage indicator with unprecedented subthreshold sensitivity and expanded excitation compatibility in both mice and flies. We leveraged ASAP7y combined with two-photon random-access microscopy to record sensory stimulus-evoked voltage dynamics with millisecond, subcellular, and subthreshold resolution along the neurites of individual neurons in Drosophila. We found remarkable heterogeneity in voltage propagation across cell-types, delineating a fundamental axis of electrical diversity. Leveraging a nanoscale EM reconstruction of the visual system4, we modeled the electrotonic properties of single neurons spanning 717 cell types, revealing how morphology shapes voltage transformations. Finally, we demonstrate that confined voltage propagation creates substrates for local computation, producing subcellular domains with distinct feature selectivity across multiple cell types. These results provide mechanistic insight into how critical single neuron computations arise and reveal parallel processing in single neurons.