Diffuse optical tomography with an amplified ultrafast laser and a single shot streak camera: application to real-time in vivo songbird neuroimaging

A new ultrafast Diffuse Optical Tomography (DOT) has been developed for real time in vivo brain metabolism monitoring in songbird. The technique is based on space resolved time of flight measurements of the photons across the brain tissues. A three dimensional reconstruction of the brain activity is foreseeable by means of a double space and time sampling of the reflectance signal. The setup and the treatment procedure are described in depth and promising preliminary results showing the response of brain tissues to hypercapnia stimulations (increase of CO2) are presented.