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Functional Ultrasound is an emerging technique that uses ultrasonic pulses and array processing to measure hemodynamic activity in the brain.

Unlike similar measurements in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), fUS can be built in small, light packages that can be mounted on animals, such as rats. fUS therefore enables brain-wide imaging in freely moving settings; a critical capability in studying brain dynamics in naturalistic settings. In medicine, fUS is providing new, portable, ways to image infant brain activity without the need for restraints. In systems neuroscience, fUS now provides the capability to study brain activity during naturalistic behaviors such as foraging. It is thus important that, like in fMRI, calcium imaging, and other prior imaging technologies, the tools to robustly image and process the resulting data be developed.

This website is thus intended as a resource for researchers using functional ultrasound (fUS) to study neural activity in freely moving animals. Specifically, we aim to coalesce different methods that have been or are actively being developed to solve critical problems in the experimental design and data processing aspects of using fUS. These methods range from surgical procedures to motion correction, denoising, automated ROI extraction, and the interpretation of the data in the context of behavior.

Our aim is to facilitate the use of this emerging technology to enable researchers to image and understand global dynamics in freely moving organisms. This website will be constantly updated to reflect the ongoing nature of the use of fUS in systems neuroscience.