I'm beyond excited to share something truly special from my work with the Blue Brain Project!
Over the past decade (2014–2024), I’ve crafted a breathtaking collection of computational neuroscience visuals using Blue Brain Brayns 1.1.0 (up to 2019) and Blue Brain BioExplorer (from 2020 onward).
All these mesmerizing images and videos are now publicly available under the EPFL/Blue Brain Project CC BY 4.0 License.
The cerebral microvasculature forms a dense network
of interconnected blood vessels where flow is modulated partly by
astrocytes. Increased neuronal activity stimulates astrocytes to release
vasoactive substances at the endfeet, altering the diameters of
connected vessels.
Methods:
Our study simulated the coupling
between blood flow variations and vessel diameter changes driven by
astrocytic activity in the rat somatosensory cortex. We developed a
framework with three key components: coupling between the vasculature
and synthesized astrocytic morphologies, a fluid dynamics model to
compute flow in each vascular segment, and a stochastic process
replicating the effect of astrocytic endfeet on vessel radii.
Visualization with NVIDIA Omniverse
Results:
The model was validated against experimental flow values from the
literature across cortical depths. We found that local vasodilation from
astrocyte activity increased blood flow, especially in capillaries,
exhibiting a layer-specific response in deeper cortical layers.
Additionally, the highest blood flow variability occurred in
capillaries, emphasizing their role in cerebral perfusion regulation. We
discovered that astrocytic activity impacted blood flow dynamics in a
localized, clustered manner, with most vascular segments influenced by
two to three neighboring endfeet.
Conclusions:
These insights enhance our understanding of neurovascular coupling and guide future research on blood flow-related diseases.
