Extracting meaningful circuit-based calcium dynamics in astrocytes and neurons from adult mouse brain slices using single-photon GCaMP imaging

Confocal, multiphoton, or other advanced microscopy techniques produce high-quality datasets of calcium activity in live tissue. However, researchers without access to such expensive equipment can still produce meaningful observations from single-photon datasets. Here, we describe a protocol to extract meaningful features of both somatic neuronal and membranous astrocytic calcium dynamics obtained from charge-coupled device (CCD)-based camera setups, typical of electrophysiology rigs and highly relevant for investigating neuronal and astrocytic involvement in brain circuitry. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Asrican et al. (2020).