How Breathing and Cardiac functions interact with Cerebral arterio-venous blood flows: Origin of CSF oscillations

Motivation: The main drivers of CSF oscillations are currently controversial. Goal(s): To investigate whether the breathing or cardiac regulated Cerebral blood flow are the major driver of CSF dynamics. Approach: Investigate Cerebral blood and CSF flows through the intracranial compartment during free and deep breathing using real-time phase-contrast sequence. To quantify the neurofluids volume displacement along the cardiac cycle. Results: Both cardiac and breathing cycles influenced neurofluids volume displacements. CSF dynamics is significantly correlated with intracranial blood volume change. CSF dynamic acts as a compensatory mechanism of intracranial blood volume dynamics. Impact: This study confirms that intracranial blood volume change due to cardiac and breathing activities are the main drivers of CSF dynamic. This study provides valuable insights for understanding CSF circulation's complex mechanism and investigating idiopathic cerebral diseases.