Super-resolution neural network-driven mouse cerebrovascular mapping with MION-based MRI

High-resolution cerebrovascular mapping is crucial for the understanding of brain function. While the existing invasive imaging modalities map brain vasculature at the microscopic scale, they are mostly restricted to the cortical surface in small animals. The non-invasive penetrating cerebrovascular mapping for larger animals remains the privilege of MRI. To achieve high spatial resolution with MRI, we trained 3D U-net to super-resolve images from 75µm to 37.5µm isotropic resolution. Our results show a significantly improved segmented micro-vessel network and offer a powerful tool to identify the anatomical distribution of the microvessels in normal and degenerative brains longitudinally.