Optical coherence tomography imaging of evoked neural activity in sciatic nerve of rat
Abstract
Significance: Imaging neural activity in myelinated tissue using optical coherence tomography (OCT) creates new possibilities for functional imaging in the peripheral and central nervous systems. Aim: To investigate changes in OCT images in response to evoked neural activity in sciatic nerve of rat in vitro. Approach: M-scans were obtained on peripheral nerves of rat using a swept source polarisation sensitive OCT system, while a nerve cuff acquired electrical neural recordings. From a total of 10 subjects: 3 had no stimulation (controls), 3 had paw stimulation, and 4 had nerve stimulation. Changes in the OCT signal intensity, phase retardation, phase, and frequency spectra were calculated for each subject and reference samples of a mirror and microspheres in solution. Results: Observed changes in intensity in 3 paw stimulation and 2 nerve stimulation subjects and changes in frequency spectra amplitude in 2 paw stimulation subjects were above the reference noise level and were temporally consistent with osmotic swelling from ion currents during neural activity. Conclusion: Light scattering changes produced by osmotic swelling, which have previously been characterised in squid and crab nerve, are also thought to occur in myelinated fibres on a scale which is detectable using OCT
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Cite
@article{arxiv.2004.10352,
title = {Optical coherence tomography imaging of evoked neural activity in sciatic nerve of rat},
author = {James Hope and Matthew Goodwin and Frederique Vanholsbeeck},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2004.10352},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
24 pages, 21 figures, journal article submission