Noninvasive, in vivo imaging of blood-oxygenation dynamics within the mouse brain using photoacoustic microscopy

Abstract

Photoacoustic microscopy ͑PAM͒ has been used to obtain high-resolution, noninvasive images of the in vivo mouse brain. In this work, we exploit the high-depth and temporal resolutions of PAM to noninvasively image the blood-oxygenation dynamics of multiple cortex vessels in the mouse brain simultaneously in response to controlled hypoxic and hyperoxic challenges. These re-sults confirm the ability of PAM to track blood oxygen-ation in the mouse brain, a critical aspect of imaging brain activity through the hemodynamic response.