A sealed cranial window system for simultaneous recording of blood flow, and electrical and optical signals in the rat barrel cortex.

We have developed a new sealed cranial window technique which allows the manipulation of simultaneously and independently multiple sensor probes, such as a glass microelectrode and a laser-Doppler probe. possible. Furthermore, normal intracranial pressure (4 mmHg) can be maintained throughout the craniectomy and the experiment. Using this technique, we have measured the neuronal activity and local cerebral blood flow together with the intrinsic optical properties in the rat barrel cortex during mechanical stimulation of the whiskers. The onset of the field response recorded by an extracellular electrode in the principal barrel columns occurred about 8 ms from the beginning of stimulation. These responses were well correlated with the whisker displacements (3 Hz, 2 s). The local cerebral blood flow, measured by laser-Doppler flowmetry, started to increase about 0.5 s after the first field response, peaked at about 1.7 s, and then gradually waned. A similar time-course of changes in the local blood volume was observed by simultaneous intrinsic optical imaging at the hemoglobin-isosbestic wavelength (570 nm). These results suggest that our technique would be useful for assessing the mechanism underlying neurovascular coupling under physiological conditions in vivo.