Noninvasive real-time visualization of multiple cerebral hemodynamic parameters in whole mouse brains using five-dimensional optoacoustic tomography.

Current functional neuroimaging methods are not adequate for high-resolution whole-brain visualization of neural activity in real time. Here, we show imaging of fast hemodynamic changes in deep mouse brain using fully noninvasive acquisition of five-dimensional optoacoustic data from animals subjected to oxygenation stress. Multispectral video-rate acquisition of three-dimensional tomographic data enables simultaneous label-free assessment of multiple brain hemodynamic parameters, including blood oxygenation, total hemoglobin, cerebral blood volume, oxygenized and deoxygenized hemoglobin, in real time. The unprecedented results indicate that the proposed methodology may serve as a powerful complementary, and potentially superior, method for functional neuroimaging studies in rodents.