The fiber photometry system uses a low – cost implanted cannula that does not require a miniscope overhead . Simple animal surgery, lightweight implants, and smaller data files all contribute to the long-term experiments on freely-behaving animals. With high signal-to -noise ratio, and the ability to combine with a variety of behavioral paradigms, the fiber photometry system is used with GCamP, which is one of the genetically-encoded calcium indicators ( GECIs ), to record neuronal activities. Despite the fact that electrophysiology generates the highest level of temporal accuracy, its performance falls short in detecting cell-type specific population neuronal activities of the deep brain structures in behaving animals. As an alternative, fiber photometry provides the most sensitive and easiest way to achieve this function while employing one or more multimode optical fibers implanted in the brain.
In regard to the study of behavioral neuroscience, the correlation of neuronal responses with animal behavior is the core paradigm of functional dissection of neural circuits in systems. In most cases, the multi-channel fiber photometry system provides valuable insight into the functional studies of neural circuits. The fiber photometry identifies activities in more than one brain area that need to be simultaneously recorded as neurons in different brain areas respond in coordination during specific task execution. That is why fiber photometry is utilized for investigating how behaviors are produced from the integration of signals in joined brain regions. On top of that, it is efficient and even necessary for studying the neural correlates of social interaction, especially sociosexual behaviors by recording the interaction between different animals.