Label-free photoacoustic computed tomography of visually evoked responses in the primary visual cortex and four subcortical retinorecipient nuclei of anesthetized mice.

Significance: Many techniques exist for screening retinal phenotypes in mouse models in vision research, but significant challenges remain for efficiently probing higher visual centers of the brain. Photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT), with optical sensitivity to hemodynamic response (HR) in brain and ultrasound resolution, provides unique advantages in comprehensively assessing higher visual function in the mouse brain.

Aim: We aim to examine the reliability of PACT in the functional phenotyping of mouse models for vision research.

Approach: A PACT-ultrasound (US) parallel imaging system was established with a one-dimensional (1D) US transducer array and a tunable laser. Imaging was performed at three coronal planes of the brain, covering the primary visual cortex and the four subcortical nuclei, including the superior colliculus, the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, and the olivary pretectal nucleus. The visual-evoked HR was isolated from background signals using an impulse-based data processing protocol. mice with rod/cone degeneration, melanopsin-knockout (mel-KO) mice with photoreceptive ganglion cells that lack intrinsic photosensitivity, and wild-type mice as controls were imaged. The quantitative characteristics of the visual-evoked HR were compared.

Results: Quantitative analysis of the HRs shows significant differences among the three mouse strains: (1)  mice showed both smaller and slower responses compared with wild type ( , ) and (2) mel-KO mice had lower amplitude but not significantly delayed photoresponses than wild-type mice ( , ). These results agree with the known visual deficits of the mouse strains.

Conclusions: PACT demonstrated sufficient sensitivity to detecting post-retinal functional deficits.