Laser speckle contrast imaging of cerebral blood flow in freely moving animals

We designed a miniature laser speckle imager that weighs similar to 20 g and is 3.1-cm high for full-field high-resolution imaging of cerebral blood flow (CBF) in freely moving animals. Coherent laser light illuminates the cortex through a multimode optical fiber bundle fixed onto the supporting frame of the imager. The reflected lights are then collected by a miniature macrolens system and imaged by a high-resolution CMOS camera at a high frame rate (50 fps). Using this miniature imager, we achieve high spatiotemporal resolution laser speckle contrast imaging of CBF in freely moving animals in real time. (C) 2011 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI: 10.1117/1.3625231]