Photoacoustic and optical coherence tomography of epilepsy with high temporal and spatial resolution and dual optical contrasts Type of article: research article

Epilepsy results from “electrical storms” inside the brain that cause recurring seizures. About 2 in 100 people in the United States experience an unprovoked seizure at least once in their lives. The population and shape of involved epileptic neurons vary along the time course of each epileptiform event in a very short time span. Current clinical functional imaging methods, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET) and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), are limited by their low temporal resolution in documenting such paroxysmal epileptiform events. High temporal resolution is critical to overcome the motion artifacts caused by patients or procedures during epilepsy surgery. Although optical mapping methods such as intrinsic optical imaging (IOS) (Bahar et al,. 2006; Inyushin et. al., 2001; Haglund and Hochman, 2004; Schwartz et al., 2004; Schwartz and Bonhoeffer 2001) and voltage-sensitive dye imaging (VSD) (Cohen et. al,. 1986) have limitations in imaging depth and tissue toxicity,