Wave of single-impulse-stimulated fast initial dip in single vessels of mouse brains imaged by high-speed functional photoacoustic microscopy.

ABSTRACT:

Significance

The initial dip in hemoglobin-oxygenation response to stimulations is a spatially confined endogenous indicator that is faster than the blood flow response, making it a desired label-free contrast to map the neural activity. A fundamental question is whether a single-impulse stimulus, much shorter than the response delay, could produce an observable initial dip without repeated stimulation.

Aim

To answer this question, we report high-speed functional photoacoustic (PA) microscopy to investigate the initial dip in mouse brains.

Approach

We developed a Raman-laser-based dual-wavelength functional PA microscope that can image capillary-level blood oxygenation at a 1-MHz one-dimensional imaging rate. This technology was applied to monitor the hemodynamics of mouse cerebral vasculature after applying an impulse stimulus to the forepaw.

Results

We observed a transient initial dip in cerebral microvessels starting as early as 0.13 s after the onset of the stimulus. The initial dip and the subsequent overshoot manifested a wave pattern propagating across different microvascular compartments.

Conclusions

We quantified both spatially and temporally the single-impulse-stimulated microvascular hemodynamics in mouse brains at single-vessel resolution. Fast label-free imaging of single-impulse response holds promise for real-time brain-computer interfaces.

SUBMITTER: He Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7289453 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature