Application of Optical Coherence Tomography to Neuroscience Field

Abstract

The application of optical coherence tomography (OCT) to neuroscience has been reviewed. In imaging of structures in brain tissues, morphological information and scattering coeffi cients have been obtained using ultrahigh resolution OCT. The combinations of drug delivery, electrocoagulation and local block in tissues with OCT have been also reported. In functional imaging, responses at somatosensory or visual cortex by stimulus have been measured using optical intrinsic signal associated with neuronal activities. Further, the application of OCT to monitoring of viability in brain has been studied to show increases of OCT signal before cardiac arrest and negative correlations between OCT signal intensity and temperature.