Mesoscopic and microscopic imaging of sensory responses in the same animal

Imaging based on blood flow dynamics is widely used to study sensory processing. Here we investigated the extent to which local neuronal and capillary responses (two-photon microscopy) are correlated to mesoscopic responses detected with fast ultrasound (fUS) and BOLD-fMRI. Using a specialized chronic olfactory bulb preparation, we report that sequential imaging of the same mouse allows quantitative comparison of odour responses, imaged at both microscopic and mesoscopic scales. Under these conditions, functional hyperaemia occurred at the threshold of neuronal activation and fUS-CBV signals could be detected at the level of single voxels with activation maps varying according to blood velocity. Both neuronal and vascular responses increase non-linearly as a function of odour concentration, whereas both microscopic and mesoscopic vascular responses are linearly correlated to local neuronal calcium. These data establish strengths and limits of mesoscopic imaging techniques to report neural activity. Neuronal activity leads to a local increase in blood flow and volume, a process termed hyperaemia. Here, the authors employ multiple imaging approaches of neuronal and vascular activity at varying resolution to delineate the spatiotemporal dynamics of neurovascular coupling evoked by odours in the olfactory bulb.