Small animal cerebral microvascular imaging with super-resolution ultrasound: Techniques and applications

Super-resolution ultrasound (SR-US) is an emerging microvascular imaging technology that provides a micron-scale spatial resolution with tens of millimeters of depth of imaging penetration. The unmatched combination of high spatial resolution and deep imaging penetration opened new doors for many brain imaging applications that benefit from cerebrovascular biomarkers. Recently, SR-US has found its niche in small animal brain applications thanks to its unique capabilities of extending the optical-imaging-level spatial resolution to subcortical, deep brain regions. In this presentation, I will first introduce existing SR-US imaging techniques that are tailored to small animal brain imaging applications. Topics include fast SR-US methods, 3D SR-US imaging, and phase aberration correction for intact skull imaging. I will then focus on reviewing brain imaging applications that use SR-US to characterize cerebral mirovasculature in the aging, stroke, and Alzheimer’s Disease brain. Finally, I will introduce the new functional super-resolution imaging technique that combines SR-US with functional ultrasound (fUS) to realize whole-brain neural activity recording at a micron-scale spatial resolution.