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Research
Pathophysiology & treatment for neurodegenerative diseases
With a certain cognitive process, clusters of neurons activate together and form neural network that is thought be a substrate of such cognitive process. In addition, neuronal activities always follow changes of vascular activity that increase the blood flow of those regions of the brain, the neurovascular coupling. Neurovascular coupling forms the basis of functional MRI signals. Altered coupling may explain various disease conditions such as hypertension, Alzheimer disease, epilepsy and stroke. For understanding the behavior of neural circuit and coupled vascular activities, simultaneous recording of both systems is needed. We will converge optical imaging (intrinsic optical signal, calcium signal and microvasculature activity), electrophysiological technique and biochemical analysis. We plan to apply this system to understand the mechanism of cognitive processing and also neurological disorders which alter the neurovascular coupling.
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