Functional photoacoustic tomography for non-invasive imaging of cerebral blood oxygenation and blood volume in rat brain in vivo

Based on the multi-wavelength laser-based photoacoustic tomography, non-invasive in vivo imaging of functional parameters, including the hemoglobin oxygen saturation and the total concentration of hemoglobin, in small-animal brains was realized. The high sensitivity of this technique is based on the spectroscopic differences between oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin while its spatial resolution is bandwidth-limited by the photoacoustic signals rather than by the optical diffusion as in optical imaging. The point-by-point distributions of blood oxygenation and blood volume in the cerebral cortical venous vessels, altered by systemic physiological modulations including hyperoxia, normoxia and hypoxia, were visualized successfully through the intact skin and skull. This technique, with its prominent intrinsic advantages, can potentially accelerate the progress in neuroscience and provide important new insights into cerebrovascular physiology and brain function that are of great significance to the neuroscience community.