GEVIBench › All sensors › VSFP-Butterfly
VSFP-Butterfly
FRET-based voltage indicator with a novel 'Butterfly' topology sandwiching the voltage-sensing domain between two fluorescent proteins.
- Category: VSD-FRET GEVI
- Published: 2012-10-15 — J. Neurophysiol. 2012
- Derived from: VSFP2.1
- Response polarity: positive-going (fluorescence increases on depolarization)
- Spectrum: excitation peak 516 nm, emission peak 633 nm (VSFP-Butterfly)
- Two-photon compatible: yes
- Plasmid: Addgene #47978
- Tags: Ci-VSP, mCitrine/mKate2, FRET, Two-photon
Headline values (as shown in the GEVIBench table)
| Metric | Value | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Brightness (B/B_EGFP) | 1.74× EGFP | Molecular brightness relative to EGFP (extinction coefficient × quantum yield, or a measured ratio). Sensors not measured against EGFP directly are placed through a chain of pairwise brightness comparisons, combined by geometric mean. |
| Kinetics τ_on / τ_off (ms) | 7.7 / 90 ms | Activation / decay time constants in ms (amplitude-weighted mean τ for multi-exponential fits). The value shown averages the measurements made at physiological temperature (≥33 °C); if there are none, it is the measurement closest to 33 °C. |
| ΔF/F per 100 mV | +6% (median of 2 measurements: +3.95%) | Steady-state fluorescence change for a 100 mV depolarization step (−70 → +30 mV); the sign gives the polarity. The table shows the first listed measurement; the median across measurements (one-photon preferred) is used for sorting. |
| ΔF/F per mV | 0.042% | Subthreshold sensitivity: fluorescence change per mV near rest (−90 to −50 mV). Where no value is reported directly, it is estimated from the F–V curve. |
| ΔF/F per AP | 0.3% | Fluorescence change per single action potential in neurons. The table shows the first listed measurement; the median across measurements (one-photon preferred) is used for sorting. |
| AP width (FWHM, ms) | — | Full width at half maximum of the optical spike waveform. |
| Photostability t75% @ 100 mW/mm² | — | Time for fluorescence to fall to 75% of its initial value under one-photon illumination, linearly dose-scaled to 100 mW/mm² (t50% is used where the 75% crossing falls inside a fast initial transient). Two-photon curves are not dose-scaled and are excluded. |
| Papers using it (N_used) | 28 | Number of published research papers, tracked by GEVIBench, that used the sensor for an experiment (a popularity / track-record measure). |
Measurements and sources
Kinetics
- τ_on 7.7 ms, τ_off 89.9 ms at 32-34°C — Akemann 2012, Fig. 2E
ΔF/F per 100 mV
- +6%, 1P — Mishina 2014, Table 1
- +1.9%, 1P — Akemann 2012, Fig. 3C
ΔF/F per mV (subthreshold)
- 0.042%/mV — Akemann 2012, Fig. 3C
ΔF/F per action potential
- 0.3%, 1P — Akemann 2012, Fig. 3D
Brightness comparisons
- 1.74× the brightness of EGFP — doi:EC×QY: mCitrine EC=77000, QY=0.76 vs EGFP EC=56000, QY=0.60
Fluorescence–voltage (F–V) curve
ΔF/F (%) at each membrane potential, normalized to 0 at −70 mV: -140 mV: -9%; -120 mV: -8%; -100 mV: -6%; -80 mV: -2%; -70 mV: 0%; -60 mV: 2%; -40 mV: 5%; -20 mV: 6%; 0 mV: 6%; 20 mV: 6%; 40 mV: 6%; 60 mV: 6% — Akemann 2012, Fig. 2C
Research papers using VSFP-Butterfly (28)
- Imaging neural circuit dynamics with a voltage-sensitive fluorescent protein — Akemann W, Mutoh H, Perron A, Park YK, Iwamoto Y, Knöpfel T, Journal of Neurophysiology 2012 (Mouse, somatosensory cortex layer 2/3, in vivo; hippocampus CA3, brain slices; PC12 cells, in vitro)
- Exploration of genetically encoded voltage indicators based on a chimeric voltage sensing domain — Mishina Y, Mutoh H, Song C, Knöpfel T, Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience 2014 (Mouse, somatosensory cortex, in vivo; PC12 and HEK293T cells, in vitro)
- Two-photon voltage imaging using a genetically encoded voltage indicator — Akemann W, et al., Scientific Reports 2013 (Mouse, cortex layer 2/3, brain slices; mouse, somatosensory cortex, in vivo)
- Voltage imaging of waking mouse cortex reveals emergence of critical neuronal dynamics — Scott G, et al., Journal of Neuroscience 2014 (Mouse, cortex, in vivo)
- Imaging the awake visual cortex with a genetically encoded voltage indicator — Carandini M, et al., Journal of Neuroscience 2015 (Mouse, visual cortex, in vivo, awake)
- Validation of optical voltage reporting by the genetically encoded voltage indicator VSFP-Butterfly from cortical layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons in mouse brain slices — Empson RM, et al., Physiological Reports 2015 (Mouse, cortex layer 2/3, brain slices)
- Cortical entropy, mutual information and scale-free dynamics in waking mice — Fagerholm ED, et al., Cerebral Cortex 2016 (Mouse, cortex, in vivo)
- Transgenic mice for intersectional targeting of neural sensors and effectors with high specificity and performance — Madisen L, et al., Neuron 2015 (Mouse, cortex, transgenic Ai78(TITL-VSFPB) line, in vivo)
- Transgenic strategies for sparse but strong expression of genetically encoded voltage and calcium indicators — Song C, et al., International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2017 (Mouse, cortex layer 2/3, transgenic)
- Imaging of brain slices with a genetically encoded voltage indicator — Quicke P, et al., Methods in Molecular Biology 2017 (Mouse, cortex layer 2/3, brain slices)
- Cortical signatures of wakeful somatosensory processing — Song C, et al., Scientific Reports 2018 (Mouse, somatosensory cortex, in vivo, awake)
- Effects of arousal on mouse sensory cortex depend on modality — Shimaoka D, et al., Cell Reports 2018 (Mouse, visual cortex; barrel cortex; auditory cortex, in vivo, awake)
- Optogenetic sensors in the zebrafish heart: a novel in vivo electrophysiological tool to study cardiac arrhythmogenesis — van Opbergen CJM, et al., Theranostics 2018 (Zebrafish, heart, in vivo)
- Slow moving neural source in the epileptic hippocampus can mimic progression of human seizures — Chiang CC, et al., Scientific Reports 2018 (Mouse, hippocampal slices, in vitro)
- Single-neuron level one-photon voltage imaging with sparsely targeted genetically encoded voltage indicators — Quicke P, et al., Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience 2019 (Mouse, cortex layer 2/3, brain slices)
- In vitro testing of voltage indicators: Archon1, ArcLightD, ASAP1, ASAP2s, ASAP3b, Bongwoori-Pos6, BeRST1, FlicR1, and Chi-VSFP-Butterfly — Milosevic MM, et al., eNeuro 2020 (Mouse, cortex, brain slices; HEK293 cells, in vitro)
- Subcellular resolution three-dimensional light-field imaging with genetically encoded voltage indicators — Quicke P, et al., Neurophotonics 2020 (Mouse, brain slices, in vitro)
- Population imaging discrepancies between a genetically-encoded calcium indicator (GECI) versus a genetically-encoded voltage indicator (GEVI) — Zhu MH, et al., Scientific Reports 2021 (Mouse, somatosensory cortex, brain slices)
- Studying synaptically evoked cortical responses ex vivo with combination of a single neuron recording (whole-cell) and population voltage imaging (genetically encoded voltage indicator) — Jang J, et al., Frontiers in Neuroscience 2021 (Mouse, cortex, brain slices)
- Cortex-wide dynamics of intrinsic electrical activities: propagating waves and their interactions — Liang Y, Song C, Liu M, Gong P, Zhou C, Knöpfel T, Journal of Neuroscience 2021 (Mouse, cortex, in vivo, anesthetized, CaMK2A-tTA;chi-VSFP transgenic)
- Combining cortical voltage imaging and hippocampal electrophysiology for investigating global, multi-timescale activity interactions in the brain — Pedrosa R, et al., International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2022 (Mouse, cortex; hippocampus, in vivo, awake)
- Evoked cortical depolarizations before and after the amyloid plaque accumulation: voltage imaging study — Zhu MH, Jogdand AH, Jang J, Nagella SC, Das B, Milosevic MM, Yan R, Antic SD, Journal of Alzheimer's Disease 2022 (Mouse, cortex, brain slices, Alzheimer's disease model (APPswe/PS1dE9), chi-VSFP transgenic)
- Cortical correlates of psychedelic-induced shaking behavior revealed by voltage imaging — Buchborn T, et al., International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2023 (Mouse, cortex layer 2/3, in vivo, awake)
- Complexity of cortical wave patterns of the wake mouse cortex — Liang Y, Liang J, Song C, Liu M, Knöpfel T, Gong P, Zhou C, Nature Communications 2023 (Mouse, cortex, in vivo, awake, CaMK2A-tTA;chi-VSFP transgenic)
- Imaging of evoked cortical depolarizations using either ASAP2s, or chi-VSFP, or Di-4-Anepps, or autofluorescence optical signals — Milicevic KD, et al., Journal of Integrative Neuroscience 2023 (Mouse, cortex, brain slices)
- Cortical networks relating to arousal are differentially coupled to neural activity and hemodynamics — Meyer-Baese L, et al., Journal of Neuroscience 2024 (Mouse, cortex, in vivo, awake)
- Ex vivo propagation of synaptically-evoked cortical depolarizations in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease at 20 Hz, 40 Hz, or 83 Hz — Patel AA, Zhu MH, Yan R, Antic SD, Scientific Reports 2024 (Mouse, cortex, brain slices, Alzheimer's disease model (5xFAD), chi-VSFP transgenic)
- Psychedelic 5-HT2A agonist increases spontaneous and evoked 5-Hz oscillations in visual and retrosplenial cortex — White CM, Azimi Z, Staadt R, Song C, Knöpfel T, Jancke D, Communications Biology 2026 (Mouse, visual cortex; retrosplenial cortex, in vivo, awake)
Data and citation
- llms.txt — summary for language models
- llms-full.txt — every sensor in full (Markdown)
- gevis.json — all values and measurements with sources (JSON)
- gevis.csv — one row per sensor (CSV)
Cite GEVIBench as: Adam E. Cohen and Daozheng Gong (2026). Voltage imaging: A practical guide. Neuron. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2026.08.002
Generated from the GEVIBench database on 2026-10-12.