CN110236482A - Integrated eye and brain visual function imaging system - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses an integrated eye-brain visual function imaging system, which includes: a visual stimulus presentation device that presents pictures and videos containing multiple stimulus-induced paradigms; an eye visual imaging device that is based on multi-spectral retinal and pupil imaging equipment; brain visual imaging equipment, which is a visual cerebral cortex blood flow signal imaging equipment based on near-infrared diffusion correlation spectrum technology; a collaborative workstation, including an imaging acquisition control module and an image analysis module, for collaborative control of eye visual imaging equipment and brain The internal visual imaging equipment is used to process and analyze the acquired multi-spectral retinal, pupil images and visual cortex blood flow images. Through this system, the synchronous recording of neural function responses of the eye retina, pupil and brain visual cortex can be realized, and the joint analysis of multi-modal and multi-parameter visual physiological signals can be used for visual information encoding and decoding, visual reconstruction mechanism research, and quantitative visual nerve regulation. Provide methods for assessing damage location etc.

Description

Integrated eye and brain visual function imaging system

technical field

The invention relates to the technical field of medical imaging, in particular to an integrated eye-brain visual function imaging system.

Background technique

Due to the importance of visual function, research on visual nerve function has always been a hot spot at home and abroad. In terms of visual nerve functional imaging of the brain, commonly used devices include functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalogram (EEG), and near-infrared functional brain imager (fNIRS). The principle of fMRI is to use dynamic magnetic resonance imaging to measure changes in blood oxygen levels caused by neuronal activity. The use of fMRI can realize the research on the functional positioning, color recognition, and visual processing of the cortex related to the human visual system. However, the temporal resolution of fMRI is low, and it cannot measure instantaneous brain neural activity changes. EEG can detect the electrical signals generated by brain nerve activity, but EEG measures the electrical signals on the head surface. Since the electrical conduction of brain nerve activity will be affected by the skull tissue, the EEG signal in the measurement space will deviate from the real cranium to a certain extent. Neuroelectrical signals within the brain, therefore often require combined fMRI to achieve accurate localization of brain activity. fNIRS is a very beneficial supplement to the existing fMRI and EEG technologies. It is a functional near-infrared optical brain imaging system that evaluates the changes in the composition of oxygenated hemoglobin and deoxygenated hemoglobin in the cerebral cortex through safe near-infrared light. However, due to fNIRS What is measured is the slowly changing blood oxygen metabolism activity, so the neural activity process cannot be accurately recorded.

In terms of visual nerve function imaging of the eye, commonly used equipment includes optical coherence tomography (OCT), ophthalmoscope, and pupillometer. OCT is a non-contact, high-resolution tomographic and biomicroscopic imaging device that can be used for in vivo viewing, axial sectioning, and measurement of structures in the posterior segment of the eye, including the retina, retinal nerve fiber layer, macula, and optic disc. Especially useful as a diagnostic device to help detect and manage eye diseases. Ophthalmoscope is mainly used for fundus retinal imaging. Ophthalmoscope can not only check for common eye diseases such as cataract and glaucoma, but also can diagnose systemic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes early. It has become a popular object of clinical medicine and modern scientific research. The pupillometer is mainly used in the fields of pupillary light reflex, pupillary conduction block, nystagmus measurement, and eye tracking. In addition, it is also a core component for precision alignment of various ophthalmic instruments. However, these devices are limited to static eye imaging, and cannot continuously and dynamically image the eye, and cannot quantitatively measure the complete neural circuit of the pupillary light reflex.

To sum up, the imaging of optic nerve function currently uses one imaging device, or uses multiple imaging devices to image the optic nerve function in time and in different parts, and analyzes on this basis. Among them, the monitoring of retinal neuron activity is mostly based on invasive or in vitro measurement methods; while the current research on the fundus is mostly focused on the obvious lesions of the retina and surrounding vascular structures, and there is still a lack of detection methods for the neural activity of the living fundus. However, visual processing is a dynamic neural response from the retina of the eye to the visual cortex of the brain. The simple combination of existing devices cannot perform instantaneous and dynamic functional imaging of the dynamic neural responses of the retina of the eye and the visual cortex of the brain. This technology can provide a method for in vivo imaging of eye retina and brain visual cortex at the same time, and develop a device that can be used for synchronous functional imaging of retina-visual cortex at the same time. It provides a new method for clinical problems such as damage localization, and has important scientific research value and clinical application value.

Contents of the invention

The technical problem mainly solved by the present invention is that the simple combination of current existing equipment cannot perform instantaneous and dynamic functional imaging on the dynamic neural responses of the retina of the eye and the visual cortex of the brain.

In order to solve the above-mentioned technical problems, the technical solution adopted by the present invention is to provide an integrated eye-brain visual function imaging system, which includes:

A visual stimulus presentation device that is a picture and video presentation device that includes multiple stimulus evoking paradigms;

Eye vision imaging equipment, the eye vision imaging equipment is based on multi-spectral eye retina and pupil image collection;

Brain visual imaging equipment, the brain visual imaging equipment is based on near-infrared diffusion correlation spectrum technology to collect visual cerebral cortex blood flow signals;

A collaborative workstation, the collaborative workstation includes an imaging acquisition control module and an image analysis module for cooperatively controlling the eye vision imaging device and the brain vision imaging device, and combining the acquired multi-spectral eye images and The visual cerebral cortex blood flow signal is subjected to data processing.

Preferably, the visual stimulus presentation device includes pictures and videos of multiple stimulus evoking paradigms, and maintains temporal consistency with the eye imaging device and the brain imaging device.

Preferably, the eye vision imaging device includes a multi-spectral light source module, an image signal acquisition and control module, an image acquisition module and a multi-spectral light source control module.

Preferably, the image acquisition module includes a collimating lens, a hollow mirror, a first converging lens, a second converging lens, a pupil camera and a retinal camera; the light emitted by the multispectral light source module is collimated by the collimating lens It is directly reflected by the hollow mirror, and then transmitted through the first converging lens to irradiate the pupil and retina of the human eye; the light reflected by the pupil enters the pupil camera, and the light reflected by the retina transmits the first converging lens, and then Pass through the middle of the hollow mirror and transmit through the second converging lens to reach the retinal camera.

Preferably, the multispectral light source control module includes a multispectral control unit, a one-key acquisition unit and an ambient light control unit.

Preferably, the visual stimulus presentation device includes a left stimulus display module and a right stimulus display module.

Preferably, the brain vision imaging device includes a cerebral blood flow number acquisition module and a data processing module, the cerebral blood flow number acquisition module includes a plurality of light sources and several probes, and the plurality of light sources and the several The probe forms a cerebral blood flow signal collection channel, and the data processing module is used to process the signal collected by the cerebral blood flow signal collection module to obtain the quantitative index of the visual cerebral cortex blood flow signal.

Preferably, the cerebral blood flow signal acquisition module is an image acquisition cap, and the plurality of light sources and several probes are distributed around the image acquisition cap.

Preferably, the light sources are near-infrared laser light sources; the light sources include 4, and the probes include 16. 4 light sources and 16 probes form 20 EEG signal acquisition channels.

Preferably, the probe includes a near-infrared laser, a single-photon detector and a single-mode/multi-mode optical fiber.

Preferably, the collaborative workstation includes an imaging acquisition control module and a visual imaging analysis module, the imaging acquisition control module is used to cooperatively control the eye imaging device and the brain visual imaging device, and the visual imaging analysis module Through the functional magnetic resonance image, the spatial features of the brain functional imaging are extracted, and the multi-modal spectrum clustering analysis is performed in combination with the multi-spectral eye image and the visual cerebral cortex blood flow signal.

The beneficial effect of the present invention is: different from the situation of the prior art, the present invention uses the integrated neurological imaging system and utilizes medical optical technology to collect the visual nerve activity signals of the eyes and the brain at the same time to provide a more comprehensive and rich visual Nerve function detection information; at the same time, the dynamic multi-spectral imaging technology based on eye optic nerve activity and the visual cortex EEG imaging technology based on near-infrared spectrum in this application can realize in vivo imaging; Perform polymorphic spectrum clustering analysis and image reconstruction on internal images and visual cortical blood flow signals, so as to provide more accurate disease analysis.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a structural schematic diagram of an embodiment of the integrated eye-brain visual function imaging system of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a structural schematic diagram of the eye vision imaging device in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of the optical path structure of the image acquisition module in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of the brain vision imaging device in Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of the cooperative workstation in Fig. 1;

FIG. 6 is a schematic flowchart of an algorithm for extracting spatial features of brain functional imaging by the visual imaging analysis module in FIG. 4 from functional magnetic resonance images.

Detailed ways

In order for those skilled in the art to better understand the technical solutions provided by the present invention, an integrated eye-brain visual function imaging system provided by the present invention will be described in detail below in conjunction with the drawings and specific embodiments.

Please refer to FIG. 1 , an embodiment of the integrated eye-brain visual function imaging system of the present invention includes a visual stimulation presentation device 10 , an eye visual imaging device 11 , a brain visual imaging device 12 and a collaborative workstation 13 .

Specifically, the visual stimulus presentation device 10 includes pictures and videos of various stimulation-induced paradigms, and maintains time consistency with the eye imaging device and the brain imaging device. The visual stimulus presentation device 10 includes a left stimulus display module and a right stimulus display module. The pupil images are collected by the pupil camera 1145 in the eye vision imaging device 11 for providing visual stimulation to the user's left eye and right eye respectively.

The eye vision imaging device 11 is based on the acquisition of multi-spectral eye images based on dynamic visual stimuli. Eye vision imaging equipment is used to collect images of the pupil and retina of the human eye.

The current equipment for imaging the visual nerve function of the eye mainly includes OCT, ophthalmoscope, and pupillometer. OCT is a non-contact, high-resolution tomographic and biomicroscopic imaging device. It can be used for in vivo viewing, axial sectioning, and measurement of structures in the posterior segment of the eye, including the retina, retinal nerve fiber layer, macula, and optic disc. edema, diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma). The device mainly utilizes the oxygenated/deoxygenated hemoglobin contained in different tissues of the fundus to absorb different spectra to perform precise imaging on different tissues. Because neuronal activity can cause changes in local blood flow/blood oxygenation, OCT-based multispectral imaging techniques may be helpful for measuring fundus neural activity. Ophthalmoscope is mainly used for fundus retinal imaging. Ophthalmoscope can not only check for common eye diseases such as cataract and glaucoma, but also can diagnose systemic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes early. It has become a popular object of clinical medicine and modern scientific research. The pupillometer is mainly used in the fields of pupillary light reflex, pupillary conduction block, nystagmus measurement, and eye tracking. In addition, it is also a core component for precision alignment of various ophthalmic instruments. However, these devices are limited to static eye imaging, and cannot continuously and dynamically image the eye, and cannot quantitatively measure the complete neural circuit of the pupillary light reflex.

To solve this problem, the present invention creatively proposes a multi-spectral eye vision imaging device 11, which can use different spectra to monitor eye retinal optic nerve activities such as blood oxygen saturation, etc., resulting in changes in optical properties to achieve dynamic fundus and pupil function imaging.

The brain visual imaging device 12 is based on the collection of blood flow signals of the visual cerebral cortex based on the near-infrared spectrum. The visual cerebral cortex blood flow signal here may be selected as the visual cerebral cortical blood flow signal. Monitoring cerebral cortical blood flow using near-infrared spectroscopy stimulation.

The above-mentioned eye vision imaging device 11 may be in the form of an eye mask, and the brain vision imaging device 12 may be in the form of a forehead wipe or a hat. These two devices are integrated into one body, which can reduce the volume and be easy to carry.

The collaborative workstation 13 is used for collaboratively controlling the eye vision imaging device 11 and the eye vision imaging device 12, and performing data processing on the acquired multi-spectral eye images and visual cortical blood flow signals.

Based on different research goals, the collaborative workstation 13 needs to consider a variety of stimulus-induced paradigms and induced presentation methods, and maintain the temporal consistency of stimulation and imaging. What the cooperative workstation 13 processes is a composite visual nerve activity signal including multispectral eye images and visual cerebral cortex blood flow signals. Therefore, it is necessary to complete functions such as cooperative light source 1211 control, data collection, data transmission, and data processing. Coordinating the multi-modal and multi-channel functional components of the eye vision imaging device 11 and the eye vision imaging device 12 is the synergy hub of the entire system. The collaborative workstation 13 is also responsible for data processing such as positioning, registration, and fusion of fundus, pupil, and visual cortex blood flow signals, as well as complex functional analysis, recording, and storage.

Through the above method, integrated eye and brain nerve function imaging can be realized, and the multispectral eye images (retina image and pupil image) and visual cortex blood flow signals collected at the same time can provide more comprehensive and rich visual nerve function detection information , based on spatial registration and specific algorithms can significantly improve the reliability and timeliness of early diagnosis of diseases.

Please refer to FIG. 2 , the eye vision imaging device 11 includes a multispectral light source module 113 , an image signal acquisition and control module 111 , an image acquisition module 114 and a multispectral light source control module 112 .

Referring to Fig. 3, the image acquisition module includes a collimating lens 1141, a hollow mirror 1142, a first converging lens 1143, a second converging lens 1144, a pupil camera 1145 and a retinal camera 1146; the light emitted by the multispectral light source module After being collimated by the collimating lens 1141, it is reflected by the hollow mirror 1142, and then transmitted through the first converging lens 1143 to irradiate the pupil and retina of the human eye; the light reflected by the pupil enters the pupil camera 1145, and the retina reflects The light transmits through the first converging lens 1143 , then passes through the middle of the hollow mirror 1142 and then transmits the second converging lens 1144 to reach the retinal camera 1146 . The collimating lens 1141 , the hollow mirror 1142 , the first converging lens 1143 , and the second converging lens 1144 can be integrated in the optical lens. A slit is set in the middle of the hollow mirror 1142 for the light reflected from the retina to pass through. The pupil image of the human eye is collected by the pupil camera 1145 , and the retinal image is collected by the retina camera 1146 .

The above-mentioned multispectral light source control module 111 may also include a multispectral control unit, a one-key acquisition unit and an ambient light control unit, and the multispectral control unit controls the emission of monochromatic lasers of different wavelengths. The one-key acquisition unit performs one-key image acquisition, and the ambient light control unit is used to control the ambient background light.

In another specific embodiment of the present invention, the eye vision imaging device 11 may further include a display device, which can facilitate display and observation of collected images, and the display device may be a liquid crystal screen.

The eye vision imaging device 11 can request the collaborative workstation 13 to read the collection results, and the data communication between the eye vision imaging device 11 and the collaborative workstation 13 adopts bus-based USB and PCI-E transmission methods.

As shown in Figure 4, the brain visual imaging device 12 includes an EEG signal acquisition module 121 and a data processing module 122, the EEG signal acquisition module 121 includes a plurality of light sources 1211 and several probes 1212, and a plurality of light sources 1211 and several probes 1212 forms an EEG signal collection channel, and the data processing module 122 is used to process the signals collected by the EEG signal collection module 121 to obtain visual cortical blood flow signals. Wherein, the light source 1211 is a near-infrared light source.

Wherein, the EEG signal acquisition module 121 is an image acquisition cap, a plurality of light sources 1211 and several probes 1212 are distributed around the image acquisition cap, the plurality of light sources 1211 can be selected as 4 light sources 1211, and the number of probes 1212 can be selected as 16 Each probe 1212, 4 light sources 1211 and 16 probes 1212 form 20 EEG signal collection channels.

Each light source 1211 is preferably a near-infrared laser light source. It can also be selected as a near-infrared LED light source.

The probe 1212 includes a near-infrared laser, a single-photon detector and a single-mode/multi-mode fiber. It can realize high-speed and accurate blood flow signal data acquisition in the cerebral cortex under coherent laser irradiation, and the above-mentioned optical fiber can be selected as a single-mode optical fiber.

As shown in Figure 5, the collaborative workstation 13 includes an imaging acquisition control module 131 and a visual imaging analysis module 132, and the imaging acquisition control module 131 is used to cooperatively control the eye imaging system and the eye vision imaging device 12, and the visual imaging analysis module 132 passes from Functional magnetic resonance imaging was selected from the video library, the spatial features of brain functional imaging were extracted, and multi-modal spectral clustering analysis was performed combining multispectral eye images and visual cortical blood flow signals.

Using the imaging acquisition control module 131 can realize the integrated control of the eye and brain visual nerve function imaging acquisition system, so that multi-modal eye images and brain electrical signals can be obtained. These images and signals reflect the retina and cerebral cortex. Neural activity evoked by visual stimuli. Since the dynamic multispectral eye images and near-infrared visual cortex blood flow signals are collected at different positions, in order to construct a three-dimensional visual conduction model, it is necessary to conduct multi-mode multi-modal analysis of the visual cerebral cortex blood flow signals and dynamic multispectral eye images. State cluster analysis.

Through multimodal cluster analysis, the correlation between multimodal information can be deeply excavated, and it can provide a reference for exploring and inferring the visual and brain science mechanism of visual nerve function.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 6 , firstly, the visual imaging analysis module 132 is used to select the fMRI image from the video library, and the fMRI image is divided into three layers to form a brain tissue image and an extracranial and intracranial image of the scalp. The cerebellum is removed from the brain tissue image to form a brain tissue image, the brain tissue image is segmented to form a gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid image, and the brain tissue image is segmented to form a functional brain area image. Cerebrospinal fluid images and functional brain region images are surface reconstructed and brain region divided to form a surface image of the cerebral cortex; eye segmentation is performed on the extracranial and intracranial images of the scalp and then combined with the surface image of the cerebral cortex to form a reconstructed image of the brain region to complete the brain function analysis. Extraction of imaging spatial features.

Then, based on a specific visual experiment paradigm, by examining the location and brightness of the stimulus, the local receptive field of the retinal nerve tissue is determined, and further based on the synchronously collected multispectral eye images and the blood flow signal of the visual cortex, the relationship between the two is established. Based on this model, the sensitivity of different visual features in the visual processing of the human brain is deeply investigated, and a quantifiable stimulus-neural response model is constructed.

Early diagnosis and rapid identification of diseases can be realized by constructing model analysis, and the reliability of disease diagnosis can be improved.

In the embodiments provided in the present invention, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices and methods may be implemented in other ways. For example, the device implementations described above are only illustrative. For example, the division of the modules or units is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods. For example, multiple units or components can be Incorporation may either be integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not implemented. In another point, the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed may be through some interfaces, and the indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units may be in electrical, mechanical or other forms.

The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place, or may be distributed to multiple network units. Part or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present invention may be integrated into one processing unit, each unit may exist separately physically, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit. The above-mentioned integrated units can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional units.

If the integrated unit is realized in the form of a software function unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the essence of the technical solution of the present invention or the part that contributes to the prior art or all or part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computer software product is stored in a storage medium , including several instructions to make a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) or a processor (processor) execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in various embodiments of the present invention. The aforementioned storage medium includes: U disk, mobile hard disk, read-only memory (ROM, Read-Only Memory), random access memory (RAM, Random Access Memory), magnetic disk or optical disk and other media that can store program codes. .

The above is only the embodiment of the present invention, and does not limit the patent scope of the present invention. Any equivalent structure or equivalent process conversion made by using the description of the present invention and the contents of the accompanying drawings, or directly or indirectly used in other related technologies fields, all of which are equally included in the scope of patent protection of the present invention.

Claims (10)

1. An integrated eye-brain visual function imaging system, characterized in that the system comprises: A visual stimulus presentation device that is a picture and video presentation device that includes multiple stimulus evoking paradigms; Eye vision imaging equipment, the eye vision imaging equipment is based on multi-spectral eye retina and pupil image acquisition; Brain visual imaging equipment, the brain visual imaging equipment is based on near-infrared diffusion correlation spectrum technology to collect visual cerebral cortex blood flow signals; A collaborative workstation, the collaborative workstation includes an imaging acquisition control module and an image analysis module for cooperatively controlling the eye vision imaging device and the brain vision imaging device, and combining the acquired multi-spectral eye images and The visual cerebral cortex blood flow signal is subjected to data processing. 2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the eye vision imaging device comprises a multispectral light source module, an image signal acquisition and control module, an image acquisition module and a multispectral light source control module. 3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the image acquisition module comprises a collimating lens, a hollow mirror, a first converging lens, a second converging lens, a pupil camera and a retinal camera; the multispectral light source The light emitted by the module is collimated by the collimating lens, reflected by the hollow mirror, and then transmitted through the first converging lens to illuminate the pupil and retina of the human eye; the light reflected by the pupil enters the pupil camera, and the light reflected by the retina The light is transmitted through the first converging lens, then passes through the middle of the hollow mirror and then transmits the second converging lens to reach the retinal camera. 4. The system according to claim 3, wherein the multispectral light source control module comprises a multispectral control unit, a one-key acquisition unit and an ambient light control unit. 5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the visual stimulus presentation device comprises a left stimulus display module and a right stimulus display module. 6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the brain visual imaging device includes a cerebral blood flow number acquisition module and a data processing module, and the cerebral blood flow number acquisition module includes a plurality of light sources and several probes , the plurality of light sources and the plurality of probes form a cerebral blood flow signal acquisition channel, and the data processing module is used to process the signal collected by the cerebral blood flow signal acquisition module to obtain the visual cerebral cortical blood Quantitative metrics for streaming signals. 7. The system according to claim 8, wherein the cerebral blood flow signal acquisition module is an image acquisition cap, and the plurality of light sources and several probes are distributed around the image acquisition cap. 8. The system according to claim 7, wherein the light sources are near-infrared laser light sources; the light sources include 4, and the probes include 16. 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the probe comprises a near-infrared laser, a single-photon detector, and a single-mode/multi-mode optical fiber. 10. The system according to claim 1, wherein the collaborative workstation includes an imaging acquisition control module and a visual imaging analysis module, and the imaging acquisition control module is used to cooperatively control the eye imaging device and the brain A visual imaging device, the visual imaging analysis module extracts the spatial features of brain functional imaging through functional magnetic resonance images, and performs multimodal spectral clustering analysis in combination with the multispectral eye images and the visual cerebral cortex blood flow signals .