High Frequency Functional Ultrasound in Mice

Abstract

Functional ultrasound (fUS) is a relatively new imaging modality to study the brain with a high spatiotemporal resolution and a wide field-of-view. In fUS detailed images of cerebral blood flow and volume are used to derive functional information, as changes in local flow and/or volume may reflect neuronal activation through neurovascular coupling. Most fUS studies so far have been performed in rats. Translating fUS to mice, which is a favorable animal model for neuroscience, pleads for a higher spatial resolution than what has been reported so far. As a consequence the temporal sampling of the blood flow should also be increased in order to adequately capture the wide range in blood velocities, as the Doppler shifts are inversely proportional to the spatial resolution. Here we present our first detailed images of the mouse brain vasculature at high spatiotemporal resolution. In addition we show some early experimental work on tracking brain activity upon local electrical stimulation.