Functional Ultrasound Imaging: A New Imaging Modality for Neuroscience

sensitivity to slow blood flow motion gained two orders of magnitude in the last decade thanks to the advent of ultrafast ultrasound imaging at thousands of frames per second. In neuroscience, this access to small cerebral vessels flow led to the introduction of ultrasound as a new and full-fledged neuroimaging modality. Much as functional MRI or functional optical imaging, functional Ultrasound (fUS) takes benefit of the neurovascular coupling. Its ease of use, portability, spatial and temporal resolution makes it an attractive tool for functional imaging of brain activity in preclinical imaging. A large and fast-growing number of studies in a wide variety of small to large animal models have demonstrated its potential for neuroscience research. Beyond preclinical imaging, first proof of concept applications in humans are promising and proved a clear clinical inter-est in particular in human neonates, per-operative surgery, or even for the development of non-invasive brain machine interfaces. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Brain imaging. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of IBRO. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

In the past decade, sensitivity to slow blood flow motion has greatly improved with the introduction of ultrafast ultrasound imaging. In neuroscience, functional Ultrasound (fUS) has emerged as a new and promising tool for functional brain imaging, with potential applications in preclinical research and even in human clinical settings such as neonatal care and surgical procedures.