Contributions of synaptic glutamate versus neuronal spiking activity to cerebral vascular responses in awake mice.

ABSTRACT: Neurovascular coupling is the temporal relationship between neuronal activity and regional blood flow changes presumably to meet the high metabolic demands of the brain. Prior fMRI studies have reported excitatory synaptic transmission as more metabolically demanding than neuronal spiking, thus correlating better with cerebral hemodynamics. To investigate this finding with newer optical imaging techniques, we used fluorescent markers for extracellular synaptic glutamate and intracellular neuronal calcium to directly measure relationships between synaptic and spiking activities on local vascular changes in awake mice under evoked and spontaneous conditions. To determine which signal better predicts hemodynamic responses, we used a linear convolution model. Using wide field optical imaging (

SUBMITTER: Peretin JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12081398 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature