Bioengineering Seminar Series: Vassiliy Tsytsarev

Friday, February 3, 2012
11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Room 1200 Jeong H. Kim Engineering Bldg.
Professor Silvia Muro
muro@umd.edu

In Vivo Optical Imaging and its Application for Brain Research

Vassiliy Tsytsarev
Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology
University of Maryland School of Medicine

Within the last few decades, a number of new brain imaging techniques have developed rapidly, thus enabling scientists to visualize the functioning brain directly, providing a greater understanding of the principles underlying neural network organization and function.

In one of these methods, voltage-sensitive dye (VSD) optical imaging, VSD molecules embedded in the neural membrane fluoresce proportionally to changes in the membrane potential; it allows observation of neural activity directly.

Though we started our auditory research cortex from the study of the sound frequency representation (tonotopicity), at the next step we concentrated on the issue of sound source localization in the auditory cortex. We focused on answering the question “Where is ‘where?’ in the brain?” Our data shows that spatial location is mirrored by neural activity in the neocortex and creates moving mosaic representations.

In the somatosensory cortex study, we used VSD imaging methods in order to create a functional map of the whisker directional sensitivity in the barrel field. Our results demonstrate that spatially organized neurons in the somatosensory cortex show preference for certain directions of whisker deflection, permitting us to draw a conclusion about the functional representation of whiskers angular sensitivity in the somatosensory cortex.

Photoacoustic imaging (PA) is another newly-developed brain imaging hybrid technique that detects absorbed photons ultrasonically. We used this method to visualize epileptic seizures, induced by intracortical injection of 4-Amynoperedine that is a potassium channel inhibitor. By comparing simultaneously acquired electroencephalography (EEG) and PA data, we observed vasodilatation before and during the course of the epileptic seizures. This type of hemodynamic phenomenon likely has a neuronal-astrocyte origin that is very important for understanding the mechanism of epileptic seizures.

Audience: Graduate  Faculty  Post-Docs 

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