Neural activity leads to cellular swelling along with the hemodynamic response from the vasculature. The latter process is the basis for the BOLD signal detected with fMRI; the former may underlie the changes observed with diffusion-weighted fMRI. Optical intrinsic signals can detect neuro-vascular activity (typically observed in in vivo studies of reflectance) and neuro-cellular swelling (observed mostly by transmittance in brain slices). We designed a novel miniature probe for in vivo transmittance studies in the rat brain and examined neuro-cellular coupling and neuro-vascular coupling in vivo to better understand the basis of the MRI techniques.
This abstract and the presentation materials are available to members only; a login is required.