Neurons encode information in a binary manner and process complex signals. However, predicting or generating diverse neural activity patterns remains challenging. In vitro and in vivo studies provide distinct advantages, yet no robust computational framework seamlessly integrates both da ta types. We address this by applying the Transformer model, widely used in large - scale language models, to neural data. To handle binary data, we introduced Dice loss, enabling accurate cross - domain neural activity generation. Structural analysis revealed how Dice loss enhances learning and identified key brain regions facilitating high - precision data generation. Our findings support the 3Rs principle in animal research, particularly Replacement, and establish a mathematical framework bridging animal experiments and human clinical studies. This work advances data - driven neuroscience and neural activity modeling, pa ving the way for more ethical and effective experimental methodologies. 2

Machine learning (ML) has been increasingly used to quantify chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) effect. ML models are typically trained using either measured data or fully simulated data. However, training with measured data often lacks sufficient training data, while training with fully simulated data may introduce bias due to limited simulations pools. This study introduces a new platform that combines simulated and measured components to generate partially synthetic CEST data, and to evaluate its feasibility for training ML models to predict amide proton transfer (APT) effect. Partially synthetic CEST signals were created using an inverse summation of APT effects from simulations and the other components from measurements. Training data were generated by varying APT simulation parameters and applying scaling factors to adjust the measured components, achieving a balance between simulation flexibility and fidelity. First, tissue-mimicking CEST signals along with ground truth information were created using multiple-pool model simulations to validate this method. Second, an ML model was trained individually on partially synthetic data, in vivo data, and fully simulated data, to predict APT effect in rat brains bearing 9L tumors. Experiments on tissue-mimicking data suggest that the ML method using the partially synthetic data is accurate in predicting APT. In vivo experiments suggest that our method provides more accurate and robust prediction than the training using in vivo data and fully synthetic data. Partially synthetic CEST data can address the challenges in conventional ML methods.

Quantitative ultrasound (QUS) can reveal crucial information on tissue properties such as scatterer density. If the scatterer density per resolution cell is above or below 10, the tissue is considered as fully developed speckle (FDS) or low-density scatterers (LDS), respectively. Conventionally, the scatterer density has been classified using estimated statistical parameters of the amplitude of backscattered echoes. However, if the patch size is small, the estimation is not accurate. These parameters are also highly dependent on imaging settings. In this paper, we propose a convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture for QUS, and train it using simulation data. We further improve the network performance by utilizing patch statistics as additional input channels. We evaluate the network using simulation data, experimental phantoms and in vivo data. We also compare our proposed network with different classic and deep learning models, and demonstrate its superior performance in classification of tissues with different scatterer density values. The results also show that the proposed network is able to work with different imaging parameters with no need for a reference phantom. This work demonstrates the potential of CNNs in classifying scatterer density in ultrasound images.

Ultrasound (US) is one of the most commonly used imaging modalities in both diagnosis and surgical interventions due to its low-cost, safety, and non-invasive characteristic. US image segmentation is currently a unique challenge because of the presence of speckle noise. As manual segmentation requires considerable efforts and time, the development of automatic segmentation algorithms has attracted researchers attention. Although recent methodologies based on convolutional neural networks have shown promising performances, their success relies on the availability of a large number of training data, which is prohibitively difficult for many applications. Therefore, in this study we propose the use of simulated US images and natural images as auxiliary datasets in order to pre-train our segmentation network, and then to fine-tune with limited in vivo data. We show that with as little as 19 in vivo images, fine-tuning the pre-trained network improves the dice score by 21% compared to training from scratch. We also demonstrate that if the same number of natural and simulation US images is available, pre-training on simulation data is preferable.