Progress on Optical Imaging of Functional Brain With High Temporal and Spatial Resolution / 生物化学与生物物理进展

ABSTRACT

Techniques for functional brain imaging are critical to analyze the information processing of brain and to reveal the advanced functions in brain. These techniques are the hot topics of international research. Great success has been obtained with neuroimaging techniques in the fields of neuroscience research and clinical diagnosis. Existing brain functional imaging such as magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI),positron emission tomography (PET),electroencephalogram (EEG),magnetoencephalography (MEG) and so on,have been successfully used to study brain function. However,these methods have some limitations unavoidably in the temporal or spatial resolution at present. Comparatively,the optical imaging technologies of brain function show their unique charms. Laser speckle imaging (LSI) and intrinsic optical signals imaging (IOSI) stand out because they offer a superior combination of spatial sampling,spatial resolution and temporal resolution; on the other hand,they have no need to use exogenous contrast agents. Great developments also have been obtained in both techniques and applications of brain optical imaging,and they have become powerful tools for in vivo studying functional architecture and pathophysiology in cerebral cortex by monitoring hemodynamics. However,the two optical imaging techniques are confronted with some challenges.