| 研究実績の概要 |
Habenula is a tiny anatomical structure that links the forebrain to the midbrain and acts as a critical neuroanatomical hub that connects and regulates pathways associated with a range of behaviors including reproductive behaviors, central pain processing, nutrition, sleep-wake cycles, stress responses, and learning with lateral and medial habenula showing differences in connectivity and function. The proposed research aimed at developing a deep tissue optical imaging tool based on polarization sensitive-optical coherence tomography(PS-OCT)for small animal brain imaging in-vivo. The focus was to develop an imaging tool for volumetric assessment of small brain structures like habenula with high resolution. However, due to initial technical difficulties in designing the PS-OCT system due to low light coupling efficiency, the focus was directed towards taking a alternative approach to develop a different optical tool towards studying habenula. This novel tool is a 3D fluorescence microscope using deep ultraviolet light which allows for block-face imaging on thick block of tissue samples. A preprint based on the prototypical fluorescence microscopy for 3d imaging of habenula was submitted and a peer reviewed submission is under preparation. A peer-reviewed conference proceeding in information science relating to the theoretical idea towards publishing findable brain imaging data was also submitted.
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