Investigating concurrent neuronal activities and hemodynamic signals with simultaneous fMRI and wild-field cortical optical imaging in mice

Motivation: To identify the best sequence for future multimodal studies, the simultaneous fMRI and cortical optical imaging in mice were used for evaluation of consistency of neuronal activation with EPI or ZTE scans. Goal(s): The goal of this work is to establish a general framework for simultaneous fMRI and wide-field optical imaging. Approach: ZTE and EPI were evaluated during sensory stimulation and at rest with simultaneously wide field optical imaging. Results: High quality images were obtained from 7 mice, 4 with calcium indicators and three with voltage indicators. The localized neuronal activations at cortex have great consistency with both EPI and ZTE scans. Impact: The validation opens a pathway for further imaging cell-specific fluorescence activities. The integration of these two complementary neuroimaging modalities opens a broad range of future applications for systems level neuroscience and preclinical studies of pathological brain function.