Towards High-Resolution functional Ultrasound (fUS) Imaging of the Murine Spinal Cord

While functional Ultrasound (fUS) is taking flight as a new high-resolution imaging tool for the brain, its application for spinal cord imaging has been mostly neglected so far. This, while the spinal cord plays an essential role in some of the questions currently asked in neuroscience. The current paper is the first to attempt to apply fUS to the mouse spinal cord, using an electrical epidural stimulation paradigm relevant to the current clinical questions being asked in e.g. the realm of spinal cord injury. We demonstrate the power of high-resolution vascular imaging of the murine spinal cord using both 2D and 3D-images and discuss potential applications of this newly available and unprecedented level of detailed microvascular information. In addition, we discuss one of the major problems facing the success of fUS-imaging for the (murine) spinal cord in particular: motion artefacts due to physiological and stimulation-evoked changes in breathing. Lastly, we discuss our vision on the necessary future steps which can facilitate successful fUS-imaging of the murine spinal cord.