# Nanoelectronic enabled chronic quantification of neurovascular coupling

> **NIH NIH K25** · RICE UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $177,984

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY:
Neurovascular coupling, the close spatial and temporal relationship between neural activity and hemodynamics
that regulates delivery of metabolic substrates to meet the demands of neuronal activation, is crucial to the
structural and functional integrity of the brain. It also forms the basis of modern neuroimaging techniques such
as fMRI that use hemodynamic responses to map brain function. Despite of its significant fundamental and
clinical importance, the quantitative relationship between changes in hemodynamics and neural activity
including the spatial extent of the coupling remains rudimentary; the quantitative effects of cerebrovascular
diseases on neurovascular coupling and their dependence on the severity and progression of the diseases are
understudied. Such knowledge gaps impose limitations on the precise clinical interpretation of widely applied
neuroimaging techniques, and the therapeutic opportunities to clearly target the impairment of neurovascular
coupling for treatment. The objective of this project is to provide spatiotemporally resolved quantification of
neurovascular coupling in health and during the progression of stroke and hypertension. The hypothesis is that
neurovascular coupling can be quantified and tracked by applying a novel chronic multimodal neural platform
that simultaneously map both neural activity and hemodynamic parameters with high spatial- and temporal
resolution over weeks to months in behaving animals. This is enabled by our recent development of a novel
type of ultraflexible nanoelectronic neural electrodes that provide spatially resolved neural activity recording
with seamless tissue integration and chronic optical access. We will combine these electrodes with a novel
functional optical imaging system that simultaneously images and quantifies the full-field cerebral blood flow
and oxygen tension (pO2). We will apply this multimodal system in behaving mice to quantify neurovascular
coupling including the spatiotemporal pattern, the functional form, and the alteration due to progressing
ischemia, hypertension and both. The application is highly innovative, in the applicant’s opinion, because it
integrates technical advancements at multiple fronts to provide a highly novel and powerful combination of
techniques that permits quantification of neurovascular coupling in previously unattainable temporal and spatial
regimes. The application is significant, because it is expected to have broad translational importance both in
the precise clinical interpretation of neuroimaging techniques, and in the intervention of cerebrovascular
diseases where neurovascular coupling is known to be severely compromised. The long-term goal of this
project is to understand the impairment of neurovascular coupling in stroke and hypertension with mechanisms
similar to those occurred in human patient in order to unravel the mechanism of hypertension as the leading
risk factor for stroke, and to improve prevention and i...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10322174
- **Project number:** 5K25HL140153-05
- **Recipient organization:** RICE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Lan Luan
- **Activity code:** K25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $177,984
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-12-18 → 2023-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10322174

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10322174, Nanoelectronic enabled chronic quantification of neurovascular coupling (5K25HL140153-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10322174. Licensed CC0.

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