Computed optical coherence microscopy of mouse brain ex vivo

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Optics
• Neuroimaging
• Microscopy

Background:

• Optical coherence tomography (OCT) faces a trade-off between lateral resolution and imaging depth.
• Existing optical coherence microscopy (OCM) techniques struggle with large data sizes, long acquisition times, or suboptimal point spread functions.
• Achieving volumetric imaging with extended depth coverage remains a challenge in OCM.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a volumetric OCM method with extended depth coverage for ex vivo mouse brain imaging.
• To leverage computational adaptive optics (CAO) to reduce the number of required OCM acquisitions.
• To improve the efficiency of volumetric OCM without compromising resolution.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a spectral-domain OCM system combined with computational adaptive optics (CAO).
• Focused a Gaussian beam at different depths and employed CAO to reduce the number of OCM volumes needed.
• Acquired only 11 OCM data volumes for comprehensive volumetric reconstruction.

Main Results:

• Achieved volumetric reconstruction of ex vivo mouse brain with a lateral resolution of 2.2 μm and axial resolution of 4.7 μm.
• Demonstrated a large imaging depth range of approximately 1.2 mm optical path length.
• Required 4 times fewer datasets compared to traditional focus scanning methods.

Conclusions:

• CAO-OCM enables efficient volumetric imaging of brain tissue microstructures with high resolution and large depth coverage.
• The method significantly reduces data acquisition requirements for volumetric OCM.
• Limitations of CAO were noted in highly scattering media and for deep imaging or reconstructions far from the focal plane.