Implementation of optical coherence tomography (OCT) in visualization of functional structures of cat visual cortex

We report the application of optical coherence tomography (OCT) for visualizing a I D depth resolved functional structure of cat brain in vivo. The OCT system is based on the known fact that neural activation induces structural changes such as capillary dilation and cellular swelling. Detecting these changes as an amplitude change of the scattered light, an OCT signal reflecting neural activity, i.e., functional OCT (fOCT) could be obtained. Experiments have been done to obtain a depth resolved stimulus-specific profile of activation in cat visual cortex. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.