New computational approaches for analysis of brain-wide volumetric functional ultrasound imaging in behaving rodents

Neuroscientists increasingly use virtual reality (VR) environments to simulate natural events and social interactions. VR creates interactive, multimodal sensory stimuli that offer unique advantages over other approaches to research in rodents. VR's compatibility with imaging technologies such as functional ultrasound imaging (fUSI) allows researchers to perform experiments with a high degree of ecological validity and control while recording changes in brain activity at an unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution. Recently, the Urban lab at NERF-IMEC has developed volumetric fUSI with 4D capabilities generating complex data of the brain-wide activity in behaving mice. For several years, the IMEC IPI has been designing efficient solutions for GPU processing to allow quick analysis of such a significant amount of data. We will further combine the potential of these technologies on rodents. The Ph.D. proposal is part of a large project consisting of the following steps: 1. Develop and validate the software components and algorithms for our virtual reality platform developed in-house at NERF 2. Develop and validate new computational approaches (including machine learning, supervised/unsupervised clustering,...) to quantify mice behaviors and analyze electrical recordings of brain activity 3. Combine 1/2 with vfUSI to decipher the links between brain circuits and behavior