Using the light scattering component of optical intrinsic signals to visualize in vivo functional structures of neural tissues

Visualization of changes in reflected light from in vivo brain tissues reveals spatial patterns of neural activity. An important factor which influences the degree of light reflected includes the change in light scattering elicited by neural activation. Microstructures of neural tissues generally cause light scattering, and neural activities are associated with some changes in the microstructures. Here, we show that the optical properties unique to light scattering enable us to visualize spatial patterns of retinal activity non-invasively (FRG: functional retinography), and resolve functional structures in depth (fOCT: functional optical coherence tomography).