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Neurovascular coupling during optogenetic functional activation: Local and remote stimulus-response characteristics, and uncoupling by spreading depression.

ABSTRACT: Neurovascular coupling is a fundamental response that links activity to perfusion. Traditional paradigms of neurovascular coupling utilize somatosensory stimulation to activate the primary sensory cortex through subcortical relays. Therefore, examination of neurovascular coupling in disease models can be confounded if the disease process affects these multisynaptic pathways. Optogenetic stimulation is an alternative to directly activate neurons, bypassing the subcortical relays. We employed minimally invasive optogenetic cortical activation through intact skull in Thy1-channelrhodopsin-2 transgenic mice, examined the blood flow changes using laser speckle imaging, and related these to evoked electrophysiological activity. Our data show that optogenetic activation of barrel cortex triggers intensity- and frequency-dependent hyperemia both locally within the barrel cortex (>50% CBF increase), and remotely within the ipsilateral motor cortex (>30% CBF increase). Intriguingly, activation of the barrel cortex causes a small (∼10%) but reproducible hypoperfusion within the contralateral barrel cortex, electrophysiologically linked to transhemispheric inhibition. Cortical spreading depression, known to cause neurovascular uncoupling, diminishes optogenetic hyperemia by more than 50% for up to an hour despite rapid recovery of evoked electrophysiological activity, recapitulating a unique feature of physiological neurovascular coupling. Altogether, these data establish a minimally invasive paradigm to investigate neurovascular coupling for longitudinal characterization of cerebrovascular pathologies.

SUBMITTER: Bohm M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7168797 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Cortical spreading depression is a propagating wave of depolarization that plays important roles in migraine, stroke, subarachnoid haemorrhage and brain injury. Cortical spreading depression is associated with profound vascular changes that may be a significant factor in the clinical response to cortical spreading depression events. We used a combination of optical intrinsic signal imaging, electro-physiology, potassium sensitive electrodes and spectroscopy to investigate neurovascular changes associated with cortical spreading depression in the mouse. We identified two distinct phases of altered neurovascular function, one during the propagating cortical spreading depression wave and a second much longer phase after passage of the wave. The direct current shift associated with the cortical spreading depression wave was accompanied by marked arterial constriction and desaturation of cortical haemoglobin. After recovery from the initial cortical spreading depression wave, we observed a second phase of prolonged, negative direct current shift, arterial constriction and haemoglobin desaturation, lasting at least an hour. Persistent disruption of neurovascular coupling was demonstrated by a loss of coherence between electro-physiological activity and perfusion. Extracellular potassium concentration increased during the cortical spreading depression wave, but recovered and remained at baseline after passage of the wave, consistent with different mechanisms underlying the first and second phases of neurovascular dysfunction. These findings indicate that cortical spreading depression is associated with a multiphasic alteration in neurovascular function, including a novel second direct current shift accompanied by arterial constriction and decrease in tissue oxygen supply, that is temporally and mechanistically distinct from the initial propagated cortical spreading depression wave. Vascular/metabolic uncoupling with cortical spreading depression may have important clinical consequences, and the different phases of dysfunction may represent separate therapeutic targets in the disorders where cortical spreading depression occurs.

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Neurovascular coupling during optogenetic functional activation: Local and remote stimulus-response characteristics, and uncoupling by spreading depression.

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