Quantification of cocaine-induced cortical blood flow changes using laser speckle contrast imaging and Doppler optical coherence tomography

We present a dual-imaging technique combining laser speckle contrast imaging and spectral-domain Doppler optical coherence tomography to enable quantitative characterization of local cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes in rat cortex in response to drug stimulus (e.g., cocaine) at high spatiotemporal resolutions. To examine the utility of this new technique, animal experiments were performed to study the influences of anesthetic regimes (e.g., isoflurane, α-chloralose) on the pharmadynamic effects of acute cocaine challenge. The results showed that cocaine-evoked CBF patterns (e.g., increases in α-chloralose and decreases in isoflurane regimes) were quantitatively characterized, thus rendering it a potentially useful tool for imaging studies of brain functions.