Objective: Neurovascular coupling in epilepsy is poorly understood; its study requires simultaneous monitoring of hemodynamic changes and neural activity in the brain.
Approach: Here for the first time we present a combined real-time 3D photoacoustic tomography (PAT) and electrophysiology/electroencephalography (EEG) system for the study of neurovascular coupling in epilepsy, whose ability was demonstrated with a pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) induced generalized seizure model in rats. Two groups of experiments were carried out with different wavelengths to detect the changes of oxy-hemoglobin (HbO2) and deoxy-hemoglobin (HbR) signals in the rat brain. We extracted the average PAT signals of the superior sagittal sinus (SSS), and compared them with the EEG signal.
Main results: Results showed that the seizure process can be divided into three stages. A 'dip' lasting for 1-2 min in the first stage and the following hyperfusion in the second stage were observed. The HbO2 signal and the HbR signal were generally negatively correlated. The change of blood flow was also estimated. All the acquired results here were in accordance with other published results.
Significance: Compared to other existing functional neuroimaging tools, the method proposed here enables reliable tracking of hemodynamic signal with both high spatial and high temporal resolution in 3D, so it is more suitable for neurovascular coupling study of epilepsy.