Evidence of Flicker-Induced Functional Hyperaemia in the Smallest Vessels of the Human Retinal Blood Supply.

ABSTRACT: Regional changes in blood flow are initiated within neural tissue to help fuel local differences in neural activity. Classically, this response was thought to arise only in larger arterioles and venules. However, recently, it has been proposed that a) the smallest vessels of the circulation make a comparable contribution, and b) the response should be localised intermittently along such vessels, due to the known distribution of contractile mural cells. To assess these hypotheses in human neural tissue in vivo, we imaged the retinal microvasculature (diameters 3-28 μm) non-invasively, using adaptive optics, before and after delivery of focal (360 μm) patches of flickering visible light. Our results demonstrated a definite average response in 35% of all vessel segments analysed. In these res

SUBMITTER: Duan A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5019460 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature