In this webinar, Drs. Davide Boido and Antoine Bergel will show how state-of-the-art multimodal neuroimaging can be coupled with functional ultrasound (fUS) to study neurovascular coupling across vigilance states.Although not directly reporting neuronal activity, blood flow-based neuroimaging techniques like BOLD fMRI are the most widely used to image brain activity. However, the recently introduced ultra-fast fUS method has demonstrated great potential to understand brain function.
Dr. Davide Boido will begin the webinar by describing how fUS relates to BOLD fMRI and the link between a single voxel fUS signal and neuronal activation inside that voxel. These data provide information about neurovascular coupling's linearity and fast dynamics when assessed at high spatiotemporal resolution and with short sensory stimuli. He will also highlight novel research directions allowed by fUS neuroimaging and the limitations imposed by cerebral blood-flow regulation.
In the second portion of the webinar, Dr. Antoine Bergel will discuss how fUS can be combined with electroencephalography (EEG) and video for behavioral neuroscience studies in rodents. He will also address the current challenges that must be overcome to perform longitudinal studies (days to months). Using specific examples, he will demonstrate how combining the large field of view of fUS (depth imaging) with the temporal resolution of electrophysiology can help understand brain function.
Key Topics:
- How fUS can be combined with other modalities, including: fMRI, electrophysiology, two-photon microscopy, and behavioral assays
- Important considerations for longitudinal studies, such as dedicated surgical preparation, lightweight design for unrestrained behavior, and specific signal processing and analysis pipelines
- Examples of studies combining fUS with other techniques, including the detailed characterization of brain hemodynamics during sleep and across running episodes on a linear track