Two-photon and fMRI measurements of activity dependent single vessel dynamics in mouse

I will discuss recent two-photon optical and high-field functional MRI measurements that link brain activity with changes in cortical arteriole and venule diameter. The data support a “Bagpipe” model (Drew et al PNAS 2011) in which arterioles dilate upon heightened intrinsic or stimulus-driven neuronal activity and form a reservoir of blood to perfuse cortex. Implications and extensions of this result will be discussed.