Improved Recordings of the Optical Intrinsic Signals in the Neonatal Rat Barrel Cortex

M Sintsov,R Khazipov,D Suchkov,M Minlebaev

doi:10.1007/s12668-016-0359-x

Abstract

Optical imaging of intrinsic signals (OIS) is widely used for the functional cortical mapping in vivo. Recently, OIS is also implemented for the functional mapping in the neonatal rat barrel cortex. However, the OIS is characterized by relatively low signal to noise ratio (SNR). Here, we determined parameters for post hoc data analysis that allowed improving OIS mapping and analysis in the developing rat barrel cortex in vivo. We found that application of spatial Gaussian filtering with sigma of 1 px increases the OIS SNR almost twofold. Additional light correction and low-pass temporal filtering with 1 s window size resulted in further improvement of the OIS SNR. Thus, the proposed digital filtering can substantially improve quality of the OIS recordings in the developing somatosensory cortex.

Highlights

Introduction resolutionOne of the imaging techniques is optical imaging of the intrinsic signals (OIS) that favourably combines both— temporal and spatial signal resolution
While the OIS imaging has been mainly developed for applications in adult brain, it is successfully used in developmental studies including nearinfrared spectroscopy imaging in human neonates [8]
The OIS has been detected at the column level in the neonatal rat barrel cortex [9]

Summary

Introduction

One of the imaging techniques is optical imaging of the intrinsic signals (OIS) that favourably combines both— temporal and spatial signal resolution. While the OIS imaging has been mainly developed for applications in adult brain, it is successfully used in developmental studies including nearinfrared spectroscopy imaging in human neonates [8]. The aim of the present study was to optimize the OIS preprocessing through the application of the spatial and temporal digital filters on the acquired video data in order to achieve superior resolution of the OIS in the developing cortex

Objectives

Methods

Results