two-photon GUIDED Neurovascular RECONSTRUCTION TO REDUCE VASCULAR DAMAGE CAUSED BY NEURAL probe insertion
01/30/2020
Horváth Csaba1, 2, Domokos Meszéna1, 3, Levente Balázsi3, Richárd Fiáth1, 3, István Ulbert1, 3
1 Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology,Research Centre for Natural Sciences,Budapest, Hungary
2 János Szentágothai Doctoral School of Neurosciences,Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
3 Faculty of Information Technology and Bionics,Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest, Hungary
In the field of neurophysiology, a diverse set of multi-channel neural probes are available to measure brain electrical activity across all cortical layers. In achieving high-quality neuronal measurements, both insertion methods and probe design play a cardinal role. Under in vivo conditions, the invasive procedure of probe insertion often causes significant damage to the blood-brain barrier as well as severe bleeding near the probe shank. This neurovascular tissue injury is accompanied by various types of perturbations such as temporarily raised neurotransmitter levels, or an immune response activated by a variety of factors. These deteriorative events may significantly decrease the quality and reliability of electrophysiological signals measured. Our study aims to develop a method which can be used to find an optimal position for probe insertion based on 3D corticovascular mapping. The cortical vasculature of ketamine/xylazine anesthetized Wistar rats was revealed by fluorescent dyes and z-stacks were obtained using two-photon microscopy to map the network of blood vessels in the superficial layers of the neocortex. These neurovascular maps may help to avoid the disruption of deep vessels not visible from the cortical surface, as well as large surface vessels penetrating into deeper cortical layers. This, in turn, may provide improvements in the electrophysiological performance, especially in the case of the insertion of multi-shank neural probes.