ABSTRACT
Optical imaging techniques have become widespread in neuroscience and are considered valuable tools in both neurovascular and cellular physiology research. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been a highly successful optical imaging modality in clinical applications due to the fact that it is label-free and enables high penetration depths, while still maintaining micron-scale resolution. Optical coherence microscopy (OCM) is used to describe OCT approaches that prioritize high transverse spatial resolution, typically by employing higher numerical aperture (NA) focusing. The chapter describes approaches to combine OCM and angiography methods and apply them to the study of vascular architecture in the central nervous system, with particular regard to the brain cortical vasculature. OCT typically employs a low-coherence light source and an interferometer to perform depth-resolved detection of backscattered light from a sample. OCT is based on the principle of low-coherence interferometry, which measures the echo time delay and intensity of backscattered light from a sample by comparing it to a reference path.
