Functional Optical Coherence Tomography for Intrinsic Signal Optoretinography

The retina, a neurovascular network complex, is responsible for phototransduction and initial visual information processing. Damage or degeneration in the retina can lead to significant vision impairment or legal blindness. Furthermore, as a component of the central nervous system, the retina shares pathological traits with cerebral neurodegenerative disorders. Since physiological irregularities often precede morphological alterations, functional retinal imaging is essential for disease diagnosis, progression tracking, treatment evaluation, and prognosis prediction. Intrinsic signal optoretinography (ORG) offers a promising, high-resolution method for objectively assessing retinal physiology. Analogous to electroretinography (ERG), which records stimulus-induced bioelectronic dynamics, ORG captures stimulus-evoked intrinsic optical signal (IOS) changes. Optical coherence tomography (OCT), with its exceptional depth resolution, presents a unique avenue for functional imaging of retinal photoreceptors and post-receptor neurons. This thesis investigates the development and application of functional OCT in intrinsic signal ORG imaging studies involving animal models and human subjects. Functional OCT facilitates robust ORG detection of retinal photoreceptor hyperexcitability in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) before detectable morphological abnormalities emerge. Additionally, concurrent OCT signal amplitude and phase analysis have been established for functional ORG assessment of human photoreceptors.