Journal
JOURNAL OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY
Volume 116, Issue 1, Pages 61-80Publisher
AMER PHYSIOLOGICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1152/jn.01078.2015
Keywords
awake rat; functional MRI
Categories
Funding
- National Institutes of Health [NS-057704, DE-022746]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in rodents holds great promise for advancing our knowledge about human brain function. However, the use of anesthetics to immobilize rodents during fMRI experiments has restricted the type of questions that can be addressed using this technique. Here we describe an innovative procedure to train rats to be constrained without the need of any anesthesia during the whole procedure. We show that with 8-10 days of acclimation rats can be conscious and remain still during fMRI experiments under minimal stress. In addition, we provide fMRI results of conscious rodents in a variety of commonly used fMRI experimental paradigms, and we demonstrate the improved quality of these scans by comparing results when the same rodents were scanned under anesthesia. We confirm that the awake scanning procedure permits an improved evaluation of brain networks and brain response to external stimuli with minimal movement artifact. The present study further advances the field of fMRI in awake rodents, which provide more direct, forward and reverse, translational opportunities regarding brain functional correspondences between human and rodent research.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available