Multimodal Investigation of neuromuscular interactions

The brain is densely vascularized, and the blood flow is tightly controlled by neural activity. This neurovascular interaction is very important in both normal and abnormal brain. It is the biological basis of functional magnetic resonance imaging. It is also the potential therapeutic targets for a wide variety of brain disease. However, many aspects of the neurovascular interaction remains rudimentary. One of the major limiting factor is that the study of neurovascular interaction requires simultaneous measurement of both neuronal and vascular activity. This is difficult to achieve with existing, single modal techniques. Our group is uniquely positioned to tackle this line of problems. By combining optical imaging and electrical recording in the same brain region, we are able to simultaneously measure and spatially resolve neural and hemodynamic activities, and to longitudinally track both activities in awake animals at high resolutions. These technical strength enables many opportunities to investigate neurovascular interactions in previously unattainable regimes.