The fUSI system enables 3 types of measurements:
- absolute and relative quantification of cerebral blood in both superficial and deep brain vascular networks
- structural imaging of the brain
- imaging of brain activity via cerebral blood volume changes throughout the entire rodent brain during behaviour
fUSI enables functional MRI-like imaging, without the MRI and has been demonstrated in mice during freely-moving behaviours. It represents a critical tool to evaluate vascular networks brain-wide in response to stroke, vascular dementia, Alzheimer disease, etc., particularly in subcortical areas implicated in various disease states. Structural imaging can be used to assess changes in response to edema.
Technical Specifications
| Imaging Depth | up to whole mouse brain (>2cm) |
| Resolution | ~100μm |
| Data Analysis | large data; requires arivis Vision4D software |
Existing 2D wide-field versus proposed 3D functional ultrasound imaging (fUSI): (a) 2D cortical response to a visual stimulus adapted from Mohajerani et al. (2013). (b) Full 3D brain-wide fUSI activity during a visual task adapted from Macé et al. (2018).
Key publications
Urban, A. et al. Real-time imaging of brain activity in freely moving rats using functional ultrasound. Nat. Methods 12, 873–878 (2015).
Macé, É. et al. Functional ultrasound imaging of the brain. Nat. Methods 8, 662–664 (2011).
Macé, É. et al. Whole-Brain Functional Ultrasound Imaging Reveals Brain Modules for Visuomotor Integration In Brief Article Whole-Brain Functional Ultrasound Imaging Reveals Brain Modules for Visuomotor Integration. Neuron 100, (2018).
Rungta, R. L., Osmanski, B. F., Boido, D., Tanter, M. & Charpak, S. Light controls cerebral blood flow in naive animals. Nat. Commun. 8, (2017).
Boido, D. et al. Mesoscopic and microscopic imaging of sensory responses in the same animal. Nat. Commun. 10, (2019).
Demené, C. et al. Transcranial ultrafast ultrasound localization microscopy of brain vasculature in patients. Nat. Biomed. Eng. 5, 219–228 (2021).
