4D functional ultrasound imaging of whole-brain activity in rodents

• Published in: Nature methods Vol. 16; no. 10; pp. 994 - 997
• Main Authors: Rabut, Claire, Correia, Mafalda, Finel, Victor, Pezet, Sophie, Pernot, Mathieu, Deffieux, Thomas, Tanter, Mickael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group US 01.10.2019; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/1647/245; 631/1647/245/1859; 631/1647/334/1874/486; 631/378; 631/443/376; Acoustics; Animals; Bioengineering; Bioinformatics; Biological Microscopy; Biological Techniques; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedical Engineering/Biotechnology; Blood volume; Brain; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - physiology; Brief Communication; Cerebral blood flow; Epilepsy; Frames per second; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Imaging; Life Sciences; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Mechanics; Medical imaging; Medical Physics; Methods; Neural networks; Neuroimaging; Neurology; Neurons and Cognition; Physics; Proteomics; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Rodents; Rodents as laboratory animals; Sensory stimuli; Ultrasonic imaging; Ultrasonography - methods; Ultrasound; Ultrasound imaging; France
• ISSN: 1548-7091; 1548-7105; 1548-7105
• DOI: 10.1038/s41592-019-0572-y

We extended the capabilities of functional ultrasound to whole-brain four-dimensional (4D) neuroimaging. Our multiplane-wave transmission scheme on matrix arrays at thousands of frames per second provides volumetric recordings of cerebral blood volume changes at high spatiotemporal resolution. We illustrated the approach in rats while providing multiple sensory stimuli, for 4D functional connectivity and during instantaneous tracking of epileptiform events. Functional ultrasound (fUS) imaging of neural activity has been extended to volumetric imaging across the whole brain. 4D fUS is demonstrated in the rat brain in response to sensory stimuli and during seizure-like activity.