Functional ultrasound imaging reveals different odor-evoked patterns of vascular activity in the main olfactory bulb and the anterior piriform cortex

Dynamics of cerebral blood volume during and after middle cerebral artery occlusion in rats - Comparison between ultrafast ultrasound and dynamic susceptibility contrast-enhanced MRI measurements

Tomographic perfusion imaging techniques are integral to translational stroke research paradigms that advance our understanding of the disease. Functional ultrasound (fUS) is an emerging technique that informs on cerebral blood volume (CBV) through ultrasensitive Doppler and flow velocity (CBFv) through ultrafast localization microscopy. It is not known how experimental results compare with a classical CBV-probing technique such as dynamic susceptibility contrast-enhanced perfusion MRI (DSC-MRI). To that end, we assessed hemodynamics based on uUS (n = 6) or DSC-MRI (n = 7) before, during and up to three hours after 90-minute filament-induced middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in rats. Recanalization was followed by a brief hyperperfusion response, after which CBV and CBFv temporarily normalized but progressively declined after one hour in the lesion territory. DSC-MRI data corroborated the incomplete restoration of CBV after recanalization, which may have been caused by the free-breathing anesthetic regimen. During occlusion, MCAO-induced hypoperfusion was more discrepant between either technique, likely attributable to artefactual signal mechanisms related to slow flow, and processing algorithms employed for either technique. In vivo uUS- and DSC-MRI-derived measures of CBV enable serial whole-brain assessment of post-stroke hemodynamics, but readouts from both techniques need to be interpreted cautiously in situations of very low blood flow.

Swept-3-D Ultrasound Imaging of the Mouse Brain Using a Continuously Moving 1-D-Array-Part II: Functional Imaging

Functional ultrasound (fUS) using a 1-D-array transducer normally is insufficient to capture volumetric functional activity due to being restricted to imaging a single brain slice at a time. Typically, for volumetric fUS, functional recordings are repeated many times as the transducer is moved to a new location after each recording, resulting in a nonunique average mapping of the brain response and long scan times. Our objective was to perform volumetric 3-D fUS in an efficient and cost-effective manner. This was achieved by mounting a 1-D-array transducer to a high-precision motorized linear stage and continuously translating over the mouse brain in a sweeping manner. We show how the speed at which the 1-D-array is translated over the brain affects the sampling of the hemodynamic response (HR) during visual stimulation as well as the quality of the resulting power Doppler image (PDI). Functional activation maps were compared between stationary recordings, where only one functional slice is obtained for every recording, and our swept-3-D method, where volumetric fUS was achieved in a single functional recording. The results show that the activation maps obtained with our method closely resemble those obtained during a stationary recording for that same location, while our method is not restricted to functional imaging of a single slice. Lastly, a mouse brain subvolume of ~6 mm is scanned at a volume rate of 1.5 s per volume, with a functional PDI reconstructed every [Formula: see text], highlighting swept-3-D's potential for volumetric fUS. Our method provides an affordable alternative to volumetric fUS using 2-D-matrix transducers, with a high SNR due to using a fully sampled 1-D-array transducer, and without the need to repeat functional measurements for every 2-D slice, as is most often the case when using a 1-D-array. This places our swept-3-D method as a potentially valuable addition to conventional 2-D fUS, especially when investigating whole-brain functional connectivity, or when shorter recording durations are desired.

The Emergence of Functional Ultrasound for Noninvasive Brain-Computer Interface

A noninvasive brain-computer interface is a central task in the comprehensive analysis and understanding of the brain and is an important challenge in international brain-science research. Current implanted brain-computer interfaces are cranial and invasive, which considerably limits their applications. The development of new noninvasive reading and writing technologies will advance substantial innovations and breakthroughs in the field of brain-computer interfaces. Here, we review the theory and development of the ultrasound brain functional imaging and its applications. Furthermore, we introduce latest advancements in ultrasound brain modulation and its applications in rodents, primates, and human; its mechanism and closed-loop ultrasound neuromodulation based on electroencephalograph are also presented. Finally, high-frequency acoustic noninvasive brain-computer interface is prospected based on ultrasound super-resolution imaging and acoustic tweezers.

PerceptFlow: Real-Time Ultrafast Doppler Image Enhancement Using Deep Convolutional Neural Network and Perceptual Loss

Ultrafast ultrasound is an emerging imaging modality derived from standard medical ultrasound. It allows for a high spatial resolution of 100 μm and a temporal resolution in the millisecond range with techniques such as ultrafast Doppler imaging. Ultrafast Doppler imaging has become a priceless tool for neuroscience, especially for visualizing functional vascular structures and navigating the brain in real time. Yet, the quality of a Doppler image strongly depends on experimental conditions and is easily subject to artifacts and deterioration, especially with transcranial imaging, which often comes at the cost of higher noise and lower sensitivity to small blood vessels. A common solution to better visualize brain vasculature is either accumulating more information, integrating the image over several seconds or using standard filter-based enhancement techniques, which often over-smooth the image, thus failing both to preserve sharp details and to improve our perception of the vasculature. In this study we propose combining the standard Doppler accumulation process with a real-time enhancement strategy, based on deep-learning techniques, using perceptual loss (PerceptFlow). With our perceptual approach, we bypass the need for long integration times to enhance Doppler images. We applied and evaluated our proposed method on transcranial Doppler images of mouse brains, outperforming state-of-the-art filters. We found that, in comparison to standard filters such as the Gaussian filter (GF) and block-matching and 3-D filtering (BM3D), PerceptFlow was capable of reducing background noise with a significant increase in contrast and contrast-to-noise ratio, as well as better preserving details without compromising spatial resolution.

Functional Ultrasound Neuroimaging

Functional ultrasound (fUS) is a neuroimaging method that uses ultrasound to track changes in cerebral blood volume as an indirect readout of neuronal activity at high spatiotemporal resolution. fUS is capable of imaging head-fixed or freely behaving rodents and of producing volumetric images of the entire mouse brain. It has been applied to many species, including primates and humans. Now that fUS is reaching maturity, it is being adopted by the neuroscience community. However, the nature of the fUS signal and the different implementations of fUS are not necessarily accessible to nonspecialists. This review aims to introduce these ultrasound concepts to all neuroscientists. We explain the physical basis of the fUS signal and the principles of the method, present the state of the art of its hardware implementation, and give concrete examples of current applications in neuroscience. Finally, we suggest areas for improvement during the next few years.

Ultrasound localization microscopy and functional ultrasound imaging reveal atypical features of the trigeminal ganglion vasculature

The functional imaging within the trigeminal ganglion (TG) is highly challenging due to its small size and deep localization. This study combined a methodological framework able to dive into the rat trigeminal nociceptive system by jointly providing 1) imaging of the TG blood vasculature at microscopic resolution, and 2) the measurement of hemodynamic responses evoked by orofacial stimulations in anesthetized rats. Despite the small number of sensory neurons within the TG, functional ultrasound imaging was able to image and quantify a strong and highly localized hemodynamic response in the ipsilateral TG, evoked not only by mechanical or chemical stimulations of corneal nociceptive fibers, but also by cutaneous mechanical stimulations of the ophthalmic and maxillary orofacial regions using a von Frey hair. The in vivo quantitative imaging of the TG’s vasculature using ultrasound localization microscopy combined with in toto labelling reveals particular features of the vascularization of the area containing the sensory neurons, that are likely the origin of this strong vaso-trigeminal response. This innovative imaging approach opens the path for future studies on the mechanisms underlying changes in trigeminal local blood flow and evoked hemodynamic responses, key mechanisms for the understanding and treatment of debilitating trigeminal pain conditions.

Visualisation of rat trigeminal ganglia activation during ophthalmic or maxillary nociceptive stimulations shows atypical tortuous vascularisation and a somatotopic hemodynamic response.

Functional ultrasound imaging: A useful tool for functional connectomics?

Functional ultrasound (fUS) is a hemodynamic-based functional neuroimaging technique, primarily used in animal models, that combines a high spatiotemporal resolution, a large field of view, and compatibility with behavior. These assets make fUS especially suited to interrogating brain activity at the systems level. In this review, we describe the technical capabilities offered by fUS and discuss how this technique can contribute to the field of functional connectomics. First, fUS can be used to study intrinsic functional connectivity, namely patterns of correlated activity between brain regions. In this area, fUS has made the most impact by following connectivity changes in disease models, across behavioral states, or dynamically. Second, fUS can also be used to map brain-wide pathways associated with an external event. For example, fUS has helped obtain finer descriptions of several sensory systems, and uncover new pathways implicated in specific behaviors. Additionally, combining fUS with direct circuit manipulations such as optogenetics is an attractive way to map the brain-wide connections of defined neuronal populations. Finally, technological improvements and the application of new analytical tools promise to boost fUS capabilities. As brain coverage and the range of behavioral contexts that can be addressed with fUS keep on increasing, we believe that fUS-guided connectomics will only expand in the future. In this regard, we consider the incorporation of fUS into multimodal studies combining diverse techniques and behavioral tasks to be the most promising research avenue.

A functional ultrasound brain GPS for automatic vascular-based neuronavigation

Recent advances in ultrasound imaging triggered by transmission of ultrafast plane waves have rendered functional ultrasound (fUS) imaging a valuable neuroimaging modality capable of mapping cerebral vascular networks, but also for the indirect capture of neuronal activity with high sensitivity thanks to the neurovascular coupling. However, the expansion of fUS imaging is still limited by the difficulty to identify cerebral structures during experiments based solely on the Doppler images and the shape of the vessels. In order to tackle this challenge, this study introduces the vascular brain positioning system (BPS), a GPS of the brain. The BPS is a whole-brain neuronavigation system based on the on-the-fly automatic alignment of ultrafast ultrasensitive transcranial Power Doppler volumic images to common templates such as the Allen Mouse Brain Common Coordinates Framework. This method relies on the online registration of the complex cerebral vascular fingerprint of the studied animal to a pre-aligned reference vascular atlas, thus allowing rapid matching and identification of brain structures. We quantified the accuracy of the automatic registration using super-resolution vascular images obtained at the microscopic scale using Ultrasound Localization Microscopy and found a positioning error of 44 µm and 96 µm for intra-animal and inter-animal vascular registration, respectively. The proposed BPS approach outperforms the manual vascular landmark recognition performed by expert neuroscientists (inter-annotator errors of 215 µm and 259 µm). Using the online BPS approach coupled with the Allen Atlas, we demonstrated the capability of the system to position itself automatically over chosen anatomical structures and to obtain corresponding functional activation maps even in complex oblique planes. Finally, we show that the system can be used to acquire and estimate functional connectivity matrices automatically. The proposed functional ultrasound on-the-fly neuronavigation approach allows automatic brain navigation and could become a key asset to ensure standardized experiments and protocols for non-expert and expert researchers.

Large-scale functional ultrasound imaging of the spinal cord reveals in-depth spatiotemporal responses of spinal nociceptive circuits in both normal and inflammatory states

Despite a century of research on the physiology/pathophysiology of the spinal cord in chronic pain condition, the properties of the spinal cord were rarely studied at the large-scale level from a neurovascular point of view. This is mostly due to the limited spatial and/or temporal resolution of the available techniques. Functional ultrasound imaging (fUS) is an emerging neuroimaging approach that allows, through the measurement of cerebral blood volume, the study of brain functional connectivity or functional activations with excellent spatial (100 μm) and temporal (1 msec) resolutions and a high sensitivity. The aim of this study was to increase our understanding of the spinal cord physiology through the study of the properties of spinal hemodynamic response to the natural or electrical stimulation of afferent fibers. Using a combination of fUS and ultrasound localization microscopy, the first step of this study was the fine description of the vascular structures in the rat spinal cord. Then, using either natural or electrical stimulations of different categories of afferent fibers (Aβ, Aδ, and C fibers), we could define the characteristics of the typical hemodynamic response of the rat spinal cord experimentally. We showed that the responses are fiber-specific, located ipsilaterally in the dorsal horn, and that they follow the somatotopy of afferent fiber entries in the dorsal horn and that the C-fiber response is an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor-dependent mechanism. Finally, fUS imaging of the mesoscopic hemodynamic response induced by natural tactile stimulations revealed a potentiated response in inflammatory condition, suggesting an enhanced response to allodynic stimulations.

Single-trial decoding of movement intentions using functional ultrasound neuroimaging

New technologies are key to understanding the dynamic activity of neural circuits and systems in the brain. Here, we show that a minimally invasive approach based on ultrasound can be used to detect the neural correlates of movement planning, including directions and effectors. While non-human primates (NHPs) performed memory-guided movements, we used functional ultrasound (fUS) neuroimaging to record changes in cerebral blood volume with 100 μm resolution. We recorded from outside the dura above the posterior parietal cortex, a brain area important for spatial perception, multisensory integration, and movement planning. We then used fUS signals from the delay period before movement to decode the animals' intended direction and effector. Single-trial decoding is a prerequisite to brain-machine interfaces, a key application that could benefit from this technology. These results are a critical step in the development of neuro-recording and brain interface tools that are less invasive, high resolution, and scalable.

Functional Ultrasound Imaging: A New Imaging Modality for Neuroscience

Ultrasound sensitivity to slow blood flow motion gained two orders of magnitude in the last decade thanks to the advent of ultrafast ultrasound imaging at thousands of frames per second. In neuroscience, this access to small cerebral vessels flow led to the introduction of ultrasound as a new and full-fledged neuroimaging modality. Much as functional MRI or functional optical imaging, functional Ultrasound (fUS) takes benefit of the neurovascular coupling. Its ease of use, portability, spatial and temporal resolution makes it an attractive tool for functional imaging of brain activity in preclinical imaging. A large and fast-growing number of studies in a wide variety of small to large animal models have demonstrated its potential for neuroscience research. Beyond preclinical imaging, first proof of concept applications in humans are promising and proved a clear clinical interest in particular in human neonates, per-operative surgery, or even for the development of non-invasive brain machine interfaces.

Imaging the response to deep brain stimulation in rodent using functional ultrasound

In this study, we explored the feasibility of using functional ultrasound (fUS) imaging to visualize cerebral activation associated with thalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS), in rodents. The ventrolateral (VL) thalamus was stimulated using electrical pulses of low and high frequencies of 10 and 100 Hz, respectively, and multiple voltages (1-7 V) and pulse widths (50-1500 μs). The fUS imaging demonstrated DBS-evoked activation of cerebral cortex based on changes of cerebral blood volume, specifically at the primary motor cortex (PMC). Low frequency stimulation (LFS) demonstrated significantly higher PMC activation compared to higher frequency stimulation (HFS), at intensities (5-7 V). Whereas, at lower intensities (1-3 V), only HFS demonstrated visible PMC activation. Further, LFS-evoked cerebral activation was was primarily located at the PMC. Our data presents the functionality and feasibility of fUS imaging as an investigational tool to identify brain areas associated with DBS. This preliminary study is an important stepping stone towards conducting real-time functional ultrasound imaging of DBS in awake and behaving animal models, which is of significant interest to the community for studying motor-related disorders.

Obesity in Midlife Hampers Resting and Sensory-Evoked Cerebral Blood Flow in Mice

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to investigate the effects of a high-fat diet (HFD) and aging on resting and activity-dependent cerebral blood flow (CBF).

METHODS

To run a comparison between obese and age-matched control animals, 6-week-old mice were fed either with regular chow or an HFD for 3 months or 8 months. Glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity were assessed for metabolic phenotyping. Resting and odor-evoked CBF at the microvascular scale in the olfactory bulb (OB) was investigated by multiexposure speckle imaging. Immunolabeling-enabled imaging of solvent-cleared organs was used to analyze vascular density. The ejection fraction was studied by using cardioechography. Olfactory sensitivity was tested by using a buried-food test.

RESULTS

Glucose intolerance and compromised odor-evoked CBF were observed in obese mice in the younger group. Prolonged HFD feeding triggered insulin resistance and stronger impairment in activity-dependent CBF. Aging had a specific negative impact on resting CBF. There was no decrease in vascular density in the OB of obese mice, although cardiac function was impaired at both ages. In addition, decreased olfactory sensitivity was observed only in the older, middle-aged obese mice.

CONCLUSIONS

OB microvasculature in obese mice showed a specific functional feature characterized by impaired sensory-evoked CBF and a specific deleterious effect of aging on resting CBF.

Ultrasound Technologies for Imaging and Modulating Neural Activity

Visualizing and perturbing neural activity on a brain-wide scale in model animals and humans is a major goal of neuroscience technology development. Established electrical and optical techniques typically break down at this scale due to inherent physical limitations. In contrast, ultrasound readily permeates the brain, and in some cases the skull, and interacts with tissue with a fundamental resolution on the order of 100 μm and 1 ms. This basic ability has motivated major efforts to harness ultrasound as a modality for large-scale brain imaging and modulation. These efforts have resulted in already-useful neuroscience tools, including high-resolution hemodynamic functional imaging, focused ultrasound neuromodulation, and local drug delivery. Furthermore, recent breakthroughs promise to connect ultrasound to neurons at the genetic level for biomolecular imaging and sonogenetic control. In this article, we review the state of the art and ongoing developments in ultrasonic neurotechnology, building from fundamental principles to current utility, open questions, and future potential.

Ultrafast ultrasound imaging pattern analysis reveals distinctive dynamic brain states and potent sub-network alterations in arthritic animals

Chronic pain pathologies, which are due to maladaptive changes in the peripheral and/or central nervous systems, are debilitating diseases that affect 20% of the European adult population. A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying this pathogenesis would facilitate the identification of novel therapeutic targets. Functional connectivity (FC) extracted from coherent low-frequency hemodynamic fluctuations among cerebral networks has recently brought light on a powerful approach to study large scale brain networks and their disruptions in neurological/psychiatric disorders. Analysis of FC is classically performed on averaged signals over time, but recently, the analysis of the dynamics of FC has also provided new promising information. Keeping in mind the limitations of animal models of persistent pain but also the powerful tool they represent to improve our understanding of the neurobiological basis of chronic pain pathogenicity, this study aimed at defining the alterations in functional connectivity, in a clinically relevant animal model of sustained inflammatory pain (Adjuvant-induced Arthritis) in rats by using functional ultrasound imaging, a neuroimaging technique with a unique spatiotemporal resolution (100 μm and 2 ms) and sensitivity. Our results show profound alterations of FC in arthritic animals, such as a subpart of the somatomotor (SM) network, occurring several weeks after the beginning of the disease. Also, we demonstrate for the first time that dynamic functional connectivity assessed by ultrasound can provide quantitative and robust information on the dynamic pattern that we define as brain states. While the main state consists of an overall synchrony of hemodynamic fluctuations in the SM network, arthritic animal spend statistically more time in two other states, where the fluctuations of the primary sensory cortex of the inflamed hind paws show asynchrony with the rest of the SM network. Finally, correlating FC changes with pain behavior in individual animals suggest links between FC alterations and either the cognitive or the emotional aspects of pain. Our study introduces fUS as a new translational tool for the enhanced understanding of the dynamic pain connectome and brain plasticity in a major preclinical model of chronic pain.

Transfer functions linking neural calcium to single voxel functional ultrasound signal

Functional ultrasound imaging (fUS) is an emerging technique that detects changes of cerebral blood volume triggered by brain activation. Here, we investigate the extent to which fUS faithfully reports local neuronal activation by combining fUS and two-photon microscopy (2PM) in a co-registered single voxel brain volume. Using a machine-learning approach, we compute and validate transfer functions between dendritic calcium signals of specific neurons and vascular signals measured at both microscopic (2PM) and mesoscopic (fUS) levels. We find that transfer functions are robust across a wide range of stimulation paradigms and animals, and reveal a second vascular component of neurovascular coupling upon very strong stimulation. We propose that transfer functions can be considered as reliable quantitative reporters to follow neurovascular coupling dynamics.

Neurovascular coupling refers to changes in cerebral blood flow in response to neuronal stimulation, but to what extent this change can report neuronal activation is not known. Here the authors develop transfer functions between neural calcium signals and functional ultrasound changes in blood volume in co-registered single voxel brain volumes.

Functional ultrasound imaging of deep visual cortex in awake nonhuman primates

Nowadays, several techniques exist to study and better understand how the brain works (fMRI, EEG, electrophysiology, etc.). Each has its own advantages and disadvantages (spatiotemporal resolution, maximal recording depth, signal-to-noise ratio, etc.). In this article, we show that the new functional ultrasound (fUS) imaging technique is appropriate to record and map brain activity in awake primates on a scale previously unreachable. It allows distinguishing patterns similar to ocular dominance bands in the visual cortex through all layers of the cortex, which was impossible before with common techniques. This paper demonstrates the utility of fUS imaging for studying brain activity in awake primates and its interest to all neuroscientists.

Deep regions of the brain are not easily accessible to investigation at the mesoscale level in awake animals or humans. We have recently developed a functional ultrasound (fUS) technique that enables imaging hemodynamic responses to visual tasks. Using fUS imaging on two awake nonhuman primates performing a passive fixation task, we constructed retinotopic maps at depth in the visual cortex (V1, V2, and V3) in the calcarine and lunate sulci. The maps could be acquired in a single-hour session with relatively few presentations of the stimuli. The spatial resolution of the technology is illustrated by mapping patterns similar to ocular dominance (OD) columns within superficial and deep layers of the primary visual cortex. These acquisitions using fUS suggested that OD selectivity is mostly present in layer IV but with extensions into layers II/III and V. This imaging technology provides a new mesoscale approach to the mapping of brain activity at high spatiotemporal resolution in awake subjects within the whole depth of the cortex.

An Unbiased View of Neural Networks: More than Meets the Eye

In this issue of Neuron, Macé et al. (2018) use whole-brain functional ultrasound imaging in mice to unveil the circuits involved reflexive eye movements. They separated the sensory and motor networks and discovered that certain eye movements robustly suppress the amygdala.

Functional Ultrasound Imaging of Spinal Cord Hemodynamic Responses to Epidural Electrical Stimulation: A Feasibility Study

This study presents the first implementation of functional ultrasound (fUS) imaging of the spinal cord to monitor local hemodynamic response to epidural electrical spinal cord stimulation (SCS) on two small and large animal models. SCS has been successfully applied to control chronic refractory pain and recently was evolved to alleviate motor impairment in Parkinson's disease and after spinal cord injury. At present, however, the mechanisms underlying SCS remain unclear, and current methods for monitoring SCS are limited in their capacity to provide the required sensitivity and spatiotemporal resolutions to evaluate functional changes in response to SCS. fUS is an emerging technology that has recently shown promising results in monitoring a variety of neural activities associated with the brain. Here we demonstrated the feasibility of performing fUS on two animal models during SCS. We showed in vivo spinal cord hemodynamic responses measured by fUS evoked by different SCS parameters. We also demonstrated that fUS has a higher sensitivity in monitoring spinal cord response than electromyography. The high spatial and temporal resolutions of fUS were demonstrated by localized measurements of hemodynamic responses at different spinal cord segments, and by reliable tracking of spinal cord responses to patterned electrical stimulations, respectively. Finally, we proposed optimized fUS imaging and post-processing methods for spinal cord. These results support feasibility of fUS imaging of the spinal cord and could pave the way for future systematic studies to investigate spinal cord functional organization and the mechanisms of spinal cord neuromodulation in vivo.

Mesoscopic and microscopic imaging of sensory responses in the same animal

Imaging based on blood flow dynamics is widely used to study sensory processing. Here we investigated the extent to which local neuronal and capillary responses (two-photon microscopy) are correlated to mesoscopic responses detected with fast ultrasound (fUS) and BOLD-fMRI. Using a specialized chronic olfactory bulb preparation, we report that sequential imaging of the same mouse allows quantitative comparison of odour responses, imaged at both microscopic and mesoscopic scales. Under these conditions, functional hyperaemia occurred at the threshold of neuronal activation and fUS-CBV signals could be detected at the level of single voxels with activation maps varying according to blood velocity. Both neuronal and vascular responses increase non-linearly as a function of odour concentration, whereas both microscopic and mesoscopic vascular responses are linearly correlated to local neuronal calcium. These data establish strengths and limits of mesoscopic imaging techniques to report neural activity.

Neuronal activity leads to a local increase in blood flow and volume, a process termed hyperaemia. Here, the authors employ multiple imaging approaches of neuronal and vascular activity at varying resolution to delineate the spatiotemporal dynamics of neurovascular coupling evoked by odours in the olfactory bulb.

Advanced Ultrasound Techniques for Pediatric Imaging

Ultrasound has become a useful tool in the workup of pediatric patients because of the highly convenient, cost-effective, and safe nature of the examination. With rapid advancements in anatomic and functional ultrasound techniques over the recent years, the diagnostic and interventional utility of ultrasound has risen tremendously. Advanced ultrasound techniques constitute a suite of new technologies that employ microbubbles to provide contrast and enhance flow visualization, elastography to measure tissue stiffness, ultrafast Doppler to deliver high spatiotemporal resolution of flow, three- and four-dimensional technique to generate accurate spatiotemporal representation of anatomy, and high-frequency imaging to delineate anatomic structures at a resolution down to 30 μm. Application of these techniques can enhance the diagnosis of organ injury, viable tumor, and vascular pathologies at bedside. This has significant clinical implications in pediatric patients who are not easy candidates for lengthy MRI or radiation-requiring examination, and are also in need of a highly sensitive bedside technique for therapeutic guidance. To best use the currently available, advanced ultrasound techniques for pediatric patients, it is necessary to understand the diagnostic utility of each technique. In this review, we will educate the readers of emerging ultrasound techniques and their respective clinical applications.

Local hippocampal fast gamma rhythms precede brain-wide hyperemic patterns during spontaneous rodent REM sleep

Rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) is a peculiar brain state combining the behavioral components of sleep and the electrophysiological profiles of wake. After decades of research our understanding of REMS still is precluded by the difficulty to observe its spontaneous dynamics and the lack of multimodal recording approaches to build comprehensive datasets. We used functional ultrasound (fUS) imaging concurrently with extracellular recordings of local field potentials (LFP) to reveal brain-wide spatiotemporal hemodynamics of single REMS episodes. We demonstrate for the first time the close association between global hyperemic events – largely outmatching wake levels in most brain regions – and local hippocampal theta (6–10 Hz) and fast gamma (80–110 Hz) events in the CA1 region. In particular, the power of fast gamma oscillations strongly correlated with the amplitude of subsequent vascular events. Our findings challenge our current understanding of neurovascular coupling and question the evolutionary benefit of such energy-demanding patterns in REMS function.

Neural activity during REM sleep is similar to the waking state. Here, the authors measure blood volume with neurofunctional ultrasound imaging together with hippocampal neural activity during REM sleep and report that fast gamma oscillations are coupled to a brain-wide upregulation of vascular flow.

Motor cortex neurovascular coupling: inputs from ultra-high-frequency ultrasound imaging in humans

OBJECTIVE

Neurovascular coupling reflects the link between neural activity and changes in cerebral blood flow. Despite many technical advances in functional exploration of the brain, including functional MRI, there are only a few reports of direct evidence of neurovascular coupling in humans. The authors aimed to explore, for the first time in humans, the local cerebral blood flow of the primary motor cortex using ultra-high-frequency ultrasound (UHF-US) Doppler imaging to detect low blood flow velocity (1 mm/sec).

METHODS

Four consecutive patients underwent awake craniotomy for glioma resection using cortical direct electrostimulation for brain mapping. The primary motor cortical area eliciting flexion of the contralateral forearm was identified. UHF-US color Doppler imaging of this cortical area was acquired at rest, during repeated spontaneous forearm flexion, and immediately after the movement's termination. In each condition, the surface areas of the detectable vessels were measured after extraction of non-zero-velocity colored pixels and summed.

RESULTS

During movement, local cerebral blood flow increased significantly by 14.4% (range 5%-30%) compared with baseline. Immediately after the termination of movements, the local hyperemia decreased significantly by 8.6% (range 1.9%-15.7%).

CONCLUSIONS

To the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to provide a real-time demonstration of the neurovascular coupling in the human cortex by ultrasound imaging. They assume that UHF-US may be used to gather original and advanced data on brain functioning, which could be used to help in the identification of functional cortical areas during brain surgery.Clinical trial registration no.: NCT03179176 (clinicaltrials.gov).

Multi-scale mapping along the auditory hierarchy using high-resolution functional UltraSound in the awake ferret

A major challenge in neuroscience is to longitudinally monitor whole brain activity across multiple spatial scales in the same animal. Functional UltraSound (fUS) is an emerging technology that offers images of cerebral blood volume over large brain portions. Here we show for the first time its capability to resolve the functional organization of sensory systems at multiple scales in awake animals, both within small structures by precisely mapping and differentiating sensory responses, and between structures by elucidating the connectivity scheme of top-down projections. We demonstrate that fUS provides stable (over days), yet rapid, highly-resolved 3D tonotopic maps in the auditory pathway of awake ferrets, thus revealing its unprecedented functional resolution (100/300µm). This was performed in four different brain regions, including very small (1–2 mm³ size), deeply situated subcortical (8 mm deep) and previously undescribed structures in the ferret. Furthermore, we used fUS to map long-distance projections from frontal cortex, a key source of sensory response modulation, to auditory cortex.

Functional ultrasound neuroimaging: a review of the preclinical and clinical state of the art

In the last decade, ultrasound imaging has gained new capabilities and produced new insights in the field of neuroscience. The development of new concepts, such as ultrafast ultrasound, has enhanced Doppler sensitivity by orders of magnitude and has paved the way for ultrasonic functional neuroimaging. In this review, we position ultrasound in the field of neuroimaging and discuss how it complements current tools available to neurobiologists and clinicians.

Noise Equalization for Ultrafast Plane Wave Microvessel Imaging

Ultrafast plane wave microvessel imaging significantly improves ultrasound Doppler sensitivity by increasing the number of Doppler ensembles that can be collected within a short period of time. The rich spatiotemporal plane wave data also enable more robust clutter filtering based on singular value decomposition. However, due to the lack of transmit focusing, plane wave microvessel imaging is very susceptible to noise. This paper was designed to: 1) study the relationship between ultrasound system noise (primarily time gain compensation induced) and microvessel blood flow signal and 2) propose an adaptive and computationally cost-effective noise equalization method that is independent of hardware or software imaging settings to improve microvessel image quality.

Understanding the neurovascular unit at multiple scales: Advantages and limitations of multi-photon and functional ultrasound imaging

Developing efficient brain imaging technologies by combining a high spatiotemporal resolution and a large penetration depth is a key step for better understanding the neurovascular interface that emerges as a main pathway to neurodegeneration in many pathologies such as dementia. This review focuses on the advances in two complementary techniques: multi-photon laser scanning microscopy (MPLSM) and functional ultrasound imaging (fUSi). MPLSM has become the gold standard for in vivo imaging of cellular dynamics and morphology, together with cerebral blood flow. fUSi is an innovative imaging modality based on Doppler ultrasound, capable of recording vascular brain activity over large scales (i.e., tens of cubic millimeters) at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution for such volumes (up to 10μm pixel size at 10kHz). By merging these two technologies, researchers may have access to a more detailed view of the various processes taking place at the neurovascular interface. MPLSM and fUSi are also good candidates for addressing the major challenge of real-time delivery, monitoring, and in vivo evaluation of drugs in neuronal tissue.

Accelerated Singular Value-Based Ultrasound Blood Flow Clutter Filtering With Randomized Singular Value Decomposition and Randomized Spatial Downsampling

Singular value decomposition (SVD)-based ultrasound blood flow clutter filters have recently demonstrated substantial improvement in clutter rejection for ultrafast plane wave microvessel imaging, and have become the commonly used clutter filtering method for many novel ultrafast imaging applications such as functional ultrasound and super-resolution imaging. At present, however, the computational burden of SVD remains as a major hurdle for practical implementation and clinical translation of this method. To address this challenge, in the study we present two blood flow clutter filtering methods based on randomized SVD (rSVD) and randomized spatial downsampling to accelerate SVD clutter filtering with minimal compromise to the clutter filter performance. rSVD accelerates SVD computation by approximating the k largest singular values, while random downsampling accelerates both full SVD and rSVD by decomposing the original large data matrix into small matrices that can be processed in parallel. An in vitro blood flow phantom study with the presence of heavy tissue clutter showed significantly improved computational performance using the proposed methods with minimal deterioration to the clutter filter performance (less than 3-dB reduction in blood to clutter ratio, less than 0.2-cm²/s² increase in flow mean squared error, less than 0.1-cm/s increase in the standard deviation of the vessel blood flow signal, and less than 0.3-cm/s increase in tissue clutter velocity for both full SVD and rSVD when the downsampling factor was less than 20× ). The maximum acceleration was about threefold from randomized spatial downsampling, and approximately another threefold from rSVD. An in vivo rabbit kidney perfusion study showed that rSVD provided comparable performance to full SVD in clutter rejection in vivo (maximum difference of blood to clutter ratio was less than 0.6 dB), and random downsampling provided artifact-free perfusion imaging results when combined with both full SVD and rSVD. The blood to clutter ratio was still above 10 dB with a downsampling factor of 60× . We also demonstrated real-time microvessel imaging feasibility (~40-ms processing time) by combining rSVD with random downsampling. The findings and methods presented in this paper may greatly facilitate the new area of ultrafast microvessel imaging research.

3D functional ultrasound imaging of the cerebral visual system in rodents

3D functional imaging of the whole brain activity during visual task is a challenging task in rodents due to the complex tri-dimensional shape of involved brain regions and the fine spatial and temporal resolutions required to reveal the visual tract. By coupling functional ultrasound (fUS) imaging with a translational motorized stage and an episodic visual stimulation device, we managed to accurately map and to recover the activity of the visual cortices, the Superior Colliculus (SC) and the Lateral Geniculate Nuclei (LGN) in 3D. Cerebral Blood Volume (CBV) responses during visual stimuli were found to be highly correlated with the visual stimulus time profile in visual cortices (r=0.6), SC (r=0.7) and LGN (r=0.7). These responses were found dependent on flickering frequency and contrast, and optimal stimulus parameters for largest CBV increases were obtained. In particular, increasing the flickering frequency higher than 7 Hz revealed a decrease of visual cortices response while the SC response was preserved. Finally, cross-correlation between CBV signals exhibited significant delays (d=0.35 s +/−0.1 s) between blood volume response in SC and visual cortices in response to our visual stimulus. These results emphasize the interest of fUS imaging as a whole brain neuroimaging modality for brain vision studies in rodent models.

Light controls cerebral blood flow in naive animals

Optogenetics is increasingly used to map brain activation using techniques that rely on functional hyperaemia, such as opto-fMRI. Here we test whether light stimulation protocols similar to those commonly used in opto-fMRI or to study neurovascular coupling modulate blood flow in mice that do not express light sensitive proteins. Combining two-photon laser scanning microscopy and ultrafast functional ultrasound imaging, we report that in the naive mouse brain, light per se causes a calcium decrease in arteriolar smooth muscle cells, leading to pronounced vasodilation, without excitation of neurons and astrocytes. This photodilation is reversible, reproducible and energy-dependent, appearing at about 0.5 mJ. These results impose careful consideration on the use of photo-activation in studies involving blood flow regulation, as well as in studies requiring prolonged and repetitive stimulations to correct cellular defects in pathological models. They also suggest that light could be used to locally increase blood flow in a controlled fashion.

Combination of optogenetics and BOLD fMRI is routinely used to map neuronal activity upon photostimulation. Here the authors show that light, shone at intensities used in optogenetic studies, dilates vessels and increases blood flow independently of exogenous light-sensitive proteins in the mouse brain.

Comparison of glomerular activity patterns by fMRI and wide-field calcium imaging: Implications for principles underlying odor mapping

Functional imaging signals arise from distinct metabolic and hemodynamic events at the neuropil, but how these processes are influenced by pre- and post-synaptic activities need to be understood for quantitative interpretation of stimulus-evoked mapping data. The olfactory bulb (OB) glomeruli, spherical neuropil regions with well-defined neuronal circuitry, can provide insights into this issue. Optical calcium-sensitive fluorescent dye imaging (OICa(2+)) reflects dynamics of pre-synaptic input to glomeruli, whereas high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using deoxyhemoglobin contrast reveals neuropil function within the glomerular layer where both pre- and post-synaptic activities contribute. We imaged odor-specific activity patterns of the dorsal OB in the same anesthetized rats with fMRI and OICa(2+) and then co-registered the respective maps to compare patterns in the same space. Maps by each modality were very reproducible as trial-to-trial patterns for a given odor, overlapping by ~80%. Maps evoked by ethyl butyrate and methyl valerate for a given modality overlapped by ~80%, suggesting activation of similar dorsal glomerular networks by these odors. Comparison of maps generated by both methods for a given odor showed ~70% overlap, indicating similar odor-specific maps by each method. These results suggest that odor-specific glomerular patterns by high-resolution fMRI primarily tracks pre-synaptic input to the OB. Thus combining OICa(2+) and fMRI lays the framework for studies of OB processing over a range of spatiotemporal scales, where OICa(2+) can feature the fast dynamics of dorsal glomerular clusters and fMRI can map the entire glomerular sheet in the OB.

Spatiotemporal Clutter Filtering of Ultrafast Ultrasound Data Highly Increases Doppler and fUltrasound Sensitivity

Ultrafast ultrasonic imaging is a rapidly developing field based on the unfocused transmission of plane or diverging ultrasound waves. This recent approach to ultrasound imaging leads to a large increase in raw ultrasound data available per acquisition. Bigger synchronous ultrasound imaging datasets can be exploited in order to strongly improve the discrimination between tissue and blood motion in the field of Doppler imaging. Here we propose a spatiotemporal singular value decomposition clutter rejection of ultrasonic data acquired at ultrafast frame rate. The singular value decomposition (SVD) takes benefits of the different features of tissue and blood motion in terms of spatiotemporal coherence and strongly outperforms conventional clutter rejection filters based on high pass temporal filtering. Whereas classical clutter filters operate on the temporal dimension only, SVD clutter filtering provides up to a four-dimensional approach (3D in space and 1D in time). We demonstrate the performance of SVD clutter filtering with a flow phantom study that showed an increased performance compared to other classical filters (better contrast to noise ratio with tissue motion between 1 and 10mm/s and axial blood flow as low as 2.6 mm/s). SVD clutter filtering revealed previously undetected blood flows such as microvascular networks or blood flows corrupted by significant tissue or probe motion artifacts. We report in vivo applications including small animal fUltrasound brain imaging (blood flow detection limit of 0.5 mm/s) and several clinical imaging cases, such as neonate brain imaging, liver or kidney Doppler imaging.

Micro-heterogeneity of flow in a mouse model of chronic cerebral hypoperfusion revealed by longitudinal Doppler optical coherence tomography and angiography

Although microvascular dysfunction accompanies cognitive decline in aging, vascular dementia, and Alzheimer's disease, tools to study microvasculature longitudinally in vivo are lacking. Here, we use Doppler optical coherence tomography (OCT) and angiography for noninvasive, longitudinal imaging of mice with chronic cerebral hypoperfusion for up to 1 month. In particular, we optimized the OCT angiography method to selectively image red blood cell (RBC)-perfused capillaries, leading to a novel way of assessing capillary supply heterogeneity in vivo. After bilateral common carotid artery stenosis (BCAS), cortical blood flow measured by Doppler OCT dropped to half of baseline throughout the imaged tissue acutely. Microscopic imaging of the capillary bed with OCT angiography further revealed local heterogeneities in cortical flow supply during hypoperfusion. The number of RBC-perfused capillaries decreased, leading to increased oxygen diffusion distances in the days immediately after BCAS. Linear regression showed that RBC-perfused capillary density declined by 0.3% for a drop in flow of 1 mL/100 g per minute, and decreases in RBC-perfused capillary density as high as 25% were observed. Taken together, these results demonstrate the existence of local supply heterogeneity at the capillary level even at nonischemic global flow levels, and demonstrate a novel imaging method to assess this heterogeneity.

Transcranial functional ultrasound imaging of the brain using microbubble-enhanced ultrasensitive Doppler

Functional ultrasound (fUS) is a novel neuroimaging technique, based on high-sensitivity ultrafast Doppler imaging of cerebral blood volume, capable of measuring brain activation and connectivity in rodents with high spatiotemporal resolution (100 μm, 1 ms). However, the skull attenuates acoustic waves, so fUS in rats currently requires craniotomy or a thinned-skull window. Here we propose a non-invasive approach by enhancing the fUS signal with a contrast agent, inert gas microbubbles. Plane-wave illumination of the brain at high frame rate (500 Hz compounded sequence with three tilted plane waves, PRF = 1500Hz with a 128 element 15 MHz linear transducer), yields highly-resolved neurovascular maps. We compared fUS imaging performance through the intact skull bone (transcranial fUS) versus a thinned-skull window in the same animal. First, we show that the vascular network of the adult rat brain can be imaged transcranially only after a bolus intravenous injection of microbubbles, which leads to a 9 dB gain in the contrast-to-tissue ratio. Next, we demonstrate that functional increase in the blood volume of the primary sensory cortex after targeted electrical-evoked stimulations of the sciatic nerve is observable transcranially in presence of contrast agents, with high reproducibility (Pearson's coefficient ρ = 0.7 ± 0.1, p = 0.85). Our work demonstrates that the combination of ultrafast Doppler imaging and injection of contrast agent allows non-invasive functional brain imaging through the intact skull bone in rats. These results should ease non-invasive longitudinal studies in rodents and open a promising perspective for the adoption of highly resolved fUS approaches for the adult human brain.

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We combined ultrafast sensitive Doppler with contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging.

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We retrieved highly-resolved neurovascular transcranial maps with contrast agents.

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The presence of microbubbles compensates for the attenuation from the skull.

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fUS is sensitive to the local hyperemia in the rat brain through the skull with microbubbles.

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Transcranial fUS imaging allows non-invasive functional brain studies in rodents.

Functional ultrasound imaging of intrinsic connectivity in the living rat brain with high spatiotemporal resolution

Long-range coherences in spontaneous brain activity reflect functional connectivity. Here we propose a novel, highly resolved connectivity mapping approach, using ultrafast functional ultrasound (fUS), which enables imaging of cerebral microvascular haemodynamics deep in the anaesthetized rodent brain, through a large thinned-skull cranial window, with pixel dimensions of 100 μm × 100 μm in-plane. The millisecond-range temporal resolution allows unambiguous cancellation of low-frequency cardio-respiratory noise. Both seed-based and singular value decomposition analysis of spatial coherences in the low-frequency (<0.1 Hz) spontaneous fUS signal fluctuations reproducibly report, at different coronal planes, overlapping high-contrast, intrinsic functional connectivity patterns. These patterns are similar to major functional networks described in humans by resting-state fMRI, such as the lateral task-dependent network putatively anticorrelated with the midline default-mode network. These results introduce fUS as a powerful novel neuroimaging method, which could be extended to portable systems for three-dimensional functional connectivity imaging in awake and freely moving rodents.

3D ultrafast ultrasound imaging in vivo

Very high frame rate ultrasound imaging has recently allowed for the extension of the applications of echography to new fields of study such as the functional imaging of the brain, cardiac electrophysiology, and the quantitative imaging of the intrinsic mechanical properties of tumors, to name a few, non-invasively and in real time. In this study, we present the first implementation of Ultrafast Ultrasound Imaging in 3D based on the use of either diverging or plane waves emanating from a sparse virtual array located behind the probe. It achieves high contrast and resolution while maintaining imaging rates of thousands of volumes per second. A customized portable ultrasound system was developed to sample 1024 independent channels and to drive a 32  ×  32 matrix-array probe. Its ability to track in 3D transient phenomena occurring in the millisecond range within a single ultrafast acquisition was demonstrated for 3D Shear-Wave Imaging, 3D Ultrafast Doppler Imaging, and, finally, 3D Ultrafast combined Tissue and Flow Doppler Imaging. The propagation of shear waves was tracked in a phantom and used to characterize its stiffness. 3D Ultrafast Doppler was used to obtain 3D maps of Pulsed Doppler, Color Doppler, and Power Doppler quantities in a single acquisition and revealed, at thousands of volumes per second, the complex 3D flow patterns occurring in the ventricles of the human heart during an entire cardiac cycle, as well as the 3D in vivo interaction of blood flow and wall motion during the pulse wave in the carotid at the bifurcation. This study demonstrates the potential of 3D Ultrafast Ultrasound Imaging for the 3D mapping of stiffness, tissue motion, and flow in humans in vivo and promises new clinical applications of ultrasound with reduced intra--and inter-observer variability.