Neuro-X seminar: Imaging whole-brain activity with functional ultrasound imaging to understand behavior

Abstract :

 

Functional ultrasound imaging (fUS) is a powerful neuroimaging tool that can measure brain-wide vascular signals linked to neuronal activity with high spatial and temporal resolution. Focusing on fundamental neuroscience applications, I will highlight recent technical advancements of fUS used in our laboratory, such as the ability to image the entire mouse brain while manipulating specific neuronal circuits with optogenetics. I will exemplify the potential of fUS for advancing our understanding of the neural basis of behavior, as fUS is one of the few methods that allows for real-time imaging of activity deep in the brains of behaving rodents. In particular, I will discuss how spontaneous changes in arousal and internal states modulate brain-wide activity and the role of the noradrenergic system in that process.

 

Bio :

 

After an engineering degree from ESPCI Paris and a master's in Bioimaging Sciences from Imperial College London, Emilie Macé pursued a PhD at the Langevin Institute in Paris. Her graduate work led to the development of functional ultrasound imaging (fUS). After a first postdoctoral project at the Vision Institute in Paris focusing on vision restoration, she undertook a second postdoctoral position at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel as a Human Frontier Science Program Fellow. There, she studied the brain circuits controlling eye movements in mice with fUS. Since 2019, the Macé laboratory at the Max Planck Institute of Biological Intelligence in Munich has used fUS to address fundamental questions about how brain-wide circuits underlie behavioral choices in health and psychiatric diseases. In April 2023, Emilie Macé was appointed Full Professor at the Medical University of Göttingen, supported by the Multiscale Bioimaging Cluster of Excellence (MBExC), where her laboratory will move in December 2023.