E11 Neurovascular coupling

Title

Neurovascular coupling links local neuronal activity (for example, the firing rate r of E06/E08) with regional changes in cerebral blood flow, blood volume and tissue oxygenation, the physiological basis of functional neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI (series D). The balloon model describes this coupling in three stages: a vasodilator signal s that responds to neuronal activity and decays over time, an incoming blood flow f_in that integrates said signal, and a venous compartment whose normalized volume v and normalized deoxyhemoglobin content q evolve according to the incoming flow and the fraction of oxygen extraction. The cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2) is related to the flow and extraction of oxygen, and finally the BOLD signal measured in fMRI is approximated as a linear combination of changes in volume and deoxyhemoglobin.

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