Photoacoustic imaging of human brain function through intact adult skulls
Abstract
Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has revolutionized noninvasive imaging of human brain function, but it indirectly senses deoxyhemoglobin through water-proton relaxation and relies on bulky, costly, noisy, enclosed, superconducting-magnet scanners. In contrast, photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) directly probes hemoglobin absorption using a more compact, lower-cost, quieter, open, magnet-free system. However, functional PACT of the adult human brain has so far been demonstrated only after surgical skull removal, because the skull strongly attenuates optical and acoustic signals. Here, we demonstrate non-invasive transcranial functional PACT (T-fPACT) through the intact adult skull. A densely packed, high-channel-count (3,072-element) hemispherical ultrasonic array provides near-2π-steradian simultaneous acquisition, enabling high sensitivity and single-shot three-dimensional imaging at 20 Hz that eliminates motion blurring. Participant-specific stabilization further enables measurement of small task-evoked hemodynamic responses over the entire task duration. In healthy adults, T-fPACT localized responses to expected sensorimotor regions, distinguished task-specific motor representations, and yielded consistent localizations across repeated task runs and visits. Comparison with high-field (7 T) fMRI showed spatially corresponding functional regions, while dual-wavelength imaging revealed distinct hemoglobin-weighted responses. These findings overcome the long-standing skull barrier in human brain PACT and establish non-invasive, rapid volumetric photoacoustic imaging of brain function.
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BibTeX
@misc{luo2026photoacoustic,
title = {{Photoacoustic imaging of human brain function through intact adult skulls}},
author = {Yilin Luo and Rui Cao and Manxiu Cui and Karteekeya Sastry and Kay Jann and Yousuf Aborahama and Geng Ku and Jinhua Xu and Xiaofei Luo and Shuai Na and Samuel Davis and Konstantin Maslov and Yang Zhang and Danny J. Wang and Lihong V. Wang},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.17504},
eprint = {2610.17504},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.17504},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Photoacoustic imaging of human brain function through intact adult skulls
AU - Yilin Luo
AU - Rui Cao
AU - Manxiu Cui
AU - Karteekeya Sastry
AU - Kay Jann
AU - Yousuf Aborahama
AU - Geng Ku
AU - Jinhua Xu
AU - Xiaofei Luo
AU - Shuai Na
AU - Samuel Davis
AU - Konstantin Maslov
AU - Yang Zhang
AU - Danny J. Wang
AU - Lihong V. Wang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/13
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.17504
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.17504
AB - Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has revolutionized noninvasive imaging of human brain function, but it indirectly senses deoxyhemoglobin through water-proton relaxation and relies on bulky, costly, noisy, enclosed, superconducting-magnet scanners. In contrast, photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) directly probes hemoglobin absorption using a more compact, lower-cost, quieter, open, magnet-free system. However, functional PACT of the adult human brain has so far been demonstrated only after surgical skull removal, because the skull strongly attenuates optical and acoustic signals. Here, we demonstrate non-invasive transcranial functional PACT (T-fPACT) through the intact adult skull. A densely packed, high-channel-count (3,072-element) hemispherical ultrasonic array provides near-2π-steradian simultaneous acquisition, enabling high sensitivity and single-shot three-dimensional imaging at 20 Hz that eliminates motion blurring. Participant-specific stabilization further enables measurement of small task-evoked hemodynamic responses over the entire task duration. In healthy adults, T-fPACT localized responses to expected sensorimotor regions, distinguished task-specific motor representations, and yielded consistent localizations across repeated task runs and visits. Comparison with high-field (7 T) fMRI showed spatially corresponding functional regions, while dual-wavelength imaging revealed distinct hemoglobin-weighted responses. These findings overcome the long-standing skull barrier in human brain PACT and establish non-invasive, rapid volumetric photoacoustic imaging of brain function.
ER -