Study of the Spinal Cord Activity in the Pig
Résumé
Current imaging techniques on organs take advantage
of the knowledge we have acquired but so far, few information on the
functioning of the Spinal Cord can be found. In this endeavor, this
study aimed to analyze optical properties of the Spine and use these
results to determine to what extent Near Infra-Red Spectroscopy
could be used to assess neural activity in the spine. In the first step,
the absorption spectrum of the spinal cord of a pig was obtained using
a spectrophotometer for the dimensioning of the main blocks of an
embedded system. Secondly, adapted light sources with custom probes
were used to observe autonomic functions in the spinal cord at rest
and under stimulation. Results on the measured haemodynamics
show the impact of global stimuli on a local section of the Spinal
Cord. The PPG of the spinal cord at rest showed an AC-to-DC ratio,
below 1 %, which is a low contrast in comparison with the finger.