Acoustic tumor paint for real-time imaging, surgical guidance and recurrence monitoring of brain tumors with ultrasound.

The rapid growth, invasiveness, and resistance to treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) underscore the urgent need for improved diagnostics and therapies. Current surgical practice is limited by challenges with intraoperative imaging, while recurrence monitoring requires expensive magnetic resonance or nuclear imaging scans. Here we introduce 'acoustic tumor paint', an approach to labeling brain tumors for ultrasound imaging, a widely accessible imaging modality.

Shear shock wave injury in vivo: High frame-rate ultrasound observation and histological assessment.

Using high frame-rate ultrasound and ¡1μm sensitive motion tracking we previously showed that shear waves at the surface of ex vivo and in situ brains develop into shear shock waves deep inside the brain, with destructive local accelerations. However post-mortem tissue cannot develop injuries and has different viscoelastodynamic behavior from in vivo tissue. Here we present the ultrasonic measurement of the high-rate shear shock biomechanics in the in vivo porcine brain, and histological assessment of the resulting axonal pathology.

In situ ultrasound imaging of shear shock waves in the porcine brain.

Direct measurement of brain motion at high spatio-temporal resolutions during impacts has been a persistent challenge in brain biomechanics. Using high frame-rate ultrasound and high sensitivity motion tracking, we recently showed shear waves sent to the ex vivo porcine brain developing into shear shock waves with destructive local accelerations inside the brain, which may be a key mechanism behind deep traumatic brain injuries. Here we present the ultrasound observation of shear shock waves in the acoustically challenging environment of the in situ porcine brain during a single-shot impact with sinusoidal and haversine time profiles.

Chronic Stress Alters Striosome-Circuit Dynamics, Leading to Aberrant Decision-Making.

Effective evaluation of costs and benefits is a core survival capacity that in humans is considered as optimal, "rational" decision-making. This capacity is vulnerable in neuropsychiatric disorders and in the aftermath of chronic stress, in which aberrant choices and high-risk behaviors occur. We report that chronic stress exposure in rodents produces abnormal evaluation of costs and benefits resembling non-optimal decision-making in which choices of high-cost/high-reward options are sharply increased.