Imaging neural, astrocytic and vascular synchronization to assess cocaine's effects on mPFC

This application, "Imaging neuronal, astrocytic and vascular synchronization to assess cocaine’s effects on mPFC", responds to NIDA’s CEBRA program to ‘develop or adapt innovative techniques for addiction research’. The central goal of this proposal is to develop a novel artificial intelligence (AI) enhanced fluorescence and optical Doppler microscope (AI-flODM) for simultaneous imaging of neuronal Ca2+ (Ca2+N) , astrocytic Ca2+ (Ca2+A) activities and cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFv) in medial prefrontal cortex of awake animals. AI frameworks will be used to effectively minimize motion artifacts, denoise and segment time-lapse images, from which spatiotemporal analyses will be applied to derive the synchronized Ca2+N, Ca2+A, and CBFv activities characterized by their resting-state low-frequency oscillations (LFOs,