Whole-Brain Functional Ultrasound Imaging Reveals Brain Modules for Visuomotor Integration

Overview

Journal Neuron

Publisher Cell Press

Specialty Neurology

Date 2018 Dec 7

PMID 30521779

Citations 49

Authors

Emilie Mace

Gabriel Montaldo

Stuart Trenholm

Cameron Cowan

Alexandra Brignall

Alan Urban

Botond Roska

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Large numbers of brain regions are active during behaviors. A high-resolution, brain-wide activity map could identify brain regions involved in specific behaviors. We have developed functional ultrasound imaging to record whole-brain activity in behaving mice at a resolution of ∼100 μm. We detected 87 active brain regions during visual stimulation that evoked the optokinetic reflex, a visuomotor behavior that stabilizes the gaze both horizontally and vertically. Using a genetic mouse model of congenital nystagmus incapable of generating the horizontal reflex, we identified a subset of regions whose activity was reflex dependent. By blocking eye motion in control animals, we further separated regions whose activity depended on the reflex's motor output. Remarkably, all reflex-dependent but eye motion-independent regions were located in the thalamus. Our work identifies functional modules of brain regions involved in sensorimotor integration and provides an experimental approach to monitor whole-brain activity of mice in normal and disease states.

Citing Articles

Spatiotemporal Clustering of Functional Ultrasound Signals at the Single-Voxel Level.

Lambert T, Niknejad H, Kil D, Montaldo G, Nuttin B, Brunner C eNeuro. 2025; 12(2).

PMID: 39919816 PMC: 11869936. DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0438-24.2025.

Large Scale in vivo Acquisition, Segmentation and 3D Reconstruction of Cortical Vasculature using Doppler Ultrasound Imaging.

Strumane A, Lambert T, Aelterman J, Babin D, Montaldo G, Philips W Neuroinformatics. 2025; 23(1):5.

PMID: 39806195 PMC: 11729217. DOI: 10.1007/s12021-024-09706-1.

Functional ultrasound imaging and neuronal activity: how accurate is the spatiotemporal match?.

Lambert T, Niknejad H, Kil D, Brunner C, Nuttin B, Montaldo G bioRxiv. 2024; .

PMID: 39026833 PMC: 11257620. DOI: 10.1101/2024.07.10.602912.

The COMBO window: A chronic cranial implant for multiscale circuit interrogation in mice.

Edelman B, Siegenthaler D, Wanken P, Jenkins B, Schmid B, Ressle A PLoS Biol. 2024; 22(6):e3002664.

PMID: 38829885 PMC: 11185485. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002664.

Transcranial Functional Ultrasound Imaging Detects Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation Induced Hemodynamic Changes in Mouse and Nonhuman Primate Brains .

Aurup C, Bendig J, Blackman S, McCune E, Bae S, Jimenez-Gambin S bioRxiv. 2024; .

PMID: 38559149 PMC: 10979885. DOI: 10.1101/2024.03.08.583971.

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