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Marcin Lewandowski1, Alan Urban2
1Company US4US, Instytut Podstawowych Problemów Techniki PAN, Warsaw, Poland
2VIB, KU Leuven, Belgium
Ultrasound imaging is broadly utilized in medical diagnostics and has recently been extended to specific applications in pre-clinical research on small animals — e.g. functional US (fUS) for real-time monitoring of brain activity, focused US for neuromodulation and opening of the blood-brain barrier, and more. Instrumentation for these techniques is complex and requires programmable ultrasound hardware, dedicated probes, and advanced signal processing software. We have developed a family of research ultrasound platforms with open-source software providing support for the most popular languages: PYTHON, MATLAB, C++. Our systems can work with various probes (linear, annular, matrix) in the frequency range of 1—30MHz. Real-time access to raw RF or I/Q data, support for ultrafast acquisition, and powerful GPU processing on raw data make the platforms a versatile tool for almost any application. Partnering with the community, we would like to develop software tools for selected pre- clinical applications. I will present a few application use-cases to prove how our platforms’ features and functions can bring value to the open-science paradigm.
Michiel Camps1, Clément Brunner1, Micheline Grillet1, Gabriel Montaldo1, Alan Urban1 and Sebastian Haesler1
1Neuro-Electronics Research Flanders, VIB, KU Leuven, imec, Leuven, Belgium
Novel sensory stimuli reliably evoke behavioral reactions in most animals, called orienting responses. While the process of habituation to these stimuli with repeated encounters is well studied, it is unclear how the novelty of a stimulus alone evokes an orienting response. Using volumetric functional Ultrasound Imaging (vfUSI), we study differences in neural responses to novel versus familiar stimuli at a nearly whole-brain level in a spontaneous novelty detection paradigm. This allows us to identify regions modulated by stimulus novelty as well as characterizing how responses in those regions change during habituation.
Nora Fitzgerald
Lab. Neurophysiology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Functional ultrasound imaging (fUSI) is a promising neuroimaging method offering an exquisite spatio-temporal resolution. In this preliminary investigation, we performed a series of visual, passive fixation experiments in a rhesus macaque while acquiring fUSI images, achieving an in-plane voxel resolution of 100µm and covering a 15 mm long sagittal plane over dorsal stream areas in the macaque. I will present preliminary data of (1) a phase-encoding retinotopic mapping experiment, (2) a category-localizer (including faces, bodies, objects, etc.), and (3) an optic flow experiment, whereby cortical responses to different types of visual motion were compared. Our results revealed very localized and highly reproducible cerebral blood volume responses across days for the retinotopic stimuli and for some of the visual categories and optic flow stimuli. Our data suggest that fUSI will be highly instrumental to uncover the mesoscale functional architecture of cortical areas in the monkey, via a resolution not available through fMRI and by reaching regions not accessible by microscope-based neuroimaging methods.
Klaudia Csikós1,2, Ábel Petik1,3, Domonkos Horváth1,3, Fanni Somogyi1,2, Attila Dobos1, Gabriel Montaldo4, Botond Roska5, Alan Urban4, Daniel Hillier1,2,3
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, HUN-REN Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
2Semmelweis University Doctoral School, Budapest, Hungary
3Faculty of Information Technology and Bionics, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest, Hungary
4Neuro-Electronics Research Flanders, VIB, Department of Neurosciences, Imec Leuven, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
5Institute for Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel, Basel, Switzerland
In the cortex of carnivore and primate model species, specific sensory features are encoded into functional maps. It remains unclear how the layout and interrelations of functional maps observed from surface layer activity generalize to deeper cortical layers. Cortical functional maps can be identified using electrophysiology with high temporal but spatially sparse sampling, impeding a holistic understanding of functional organization. Optical imaging can provide spatially extended sampling of cortical activity, but optical access is limited to about 1 mm depth, i.e. cortical layer 2/3 in large brains. FMRI provides information without tissue disruption albeit at limited resolution in space and time. To bridge the gap between established options for sampling brain activity, we applied functional ultrasound imaging to resolve the 3D structure of cortical functional maps. We performed longitudinal recordings from a large part of the cat visual cortex. We analyzed stability and spatial clustering of 3D architecture of functional domains across the visual cortex and seek to identify rules of interrelation between distinct functional maps. Comprehensive identification of the functional architecture in the visual cortex at balanced coverage and resolution provides a new perspective on the functional architecture in the visual cortex of large-brained species, extending the classical columnar view.
Funding: This work was supported by ELKH-POC-2021-026 grant, the Lendület (“Momentum") Programme of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to DH as well as by project no.129120 that has been implemented with the support provided by the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund, financed under the FK18 funding scheme from the Ministry for Culture and Innovation from the source of the National Research, Development and Innovation fund.
Tianzi Wang
AU Lab, NERF, Leuven, Belgium
In light of the rising prevalence of neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders, this study endeavours to pioneer a comprehensive platform for characterizing multifactorial pathologies. With Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) as a focal example, our approach aims to bridge the gap between animal models and human research by identifying potential functional biomarkers. We propose an integration of brain-wide functional Ultrasound Imaging (fUS) alongside sensory behavioural tests, coupled with advanced behavioural and functional connectivity analyses. Through this multidimensional framework, our goal is to pinpoint behavioural and brain-wide signatures of pathology, offering valuable insights into disease mechanisms. To reach this goal, I will explore differences in innate sensory behaviours and evoked sensory responses in brain-wide neural circuits and long-range correlated activity patterns (using volumetric functional Ultrasound Imaging, fUS) in Shank3B-/- and wt mice. Finally, I will utilise this integrated platform in assessing the efficacy of a pharmacological treatment on rescuing deviations in behaviour and neural activity patterns.
