scholarly journals Temporal stability of fMRI in medetomidine-anesthetized rats

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikoloz Sirmpilatze ◽  
Jürgen Baudewig ◽  
Susann Boretius

Medetomidine has become a popular choice for anesthetizing rats during long-lasting sessions of blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Despite this, it has not yet been established how commonly reported fMRI readouts evolve over several hours of medetomidine anesthesia and how they are affected by the precise timing, dose, and route of administration. We used four different protocols of medetomidine administration to anesthetize rats for up to six hours and repeatedly evaluated somatosensory stimulus-evoked BOLD responses and resting state functional connectivity throughout. We found that the temporal evolution of fMRI readouts strongly depended on the method of administration. Protocols that combined an initial medetomidine bolus (0.05 mg/kg) together with a subsequent continuous infusion (0.1 mg/kg/h) led to temporally stable measures of stimulus-evoked activity and functional connectivity. However, when the bolus was omitted, or the dose of medetomidine lowered, the measures attenuated in a time-dependent manner. We conclude that medetomidine can sustain consistent fMRI readouts for up to six hours of anesthesia, but only with an appropriate administration protocol. This factor should be considered for the design and interpretation of future preclinical fMRI studies in rats.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikoloz Sirmpilatze ◽  
Jürgen Baudewig ◽  
Susann Boretius

Abstract Medetomidine has become a popular choice for anesthetizing rats during long-lasting sessions of blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Despite this, it has not yet been thoroughly established how commonly reported fMRI readouts evolve over several hours of medetomidine anesthesia and how they are affected by the precise timing, dose, and route of administration. We used four different protocols of medetomidine administration to anesthetize rats for up to six hours and repeatedly evaluated somatosensory stimulus-evoked BOLD responses and resting state functional connectivity. We found that the temporal evolution of fMRI readouts strongly depended on the method of administration. Intravenous administration of a medetomidine bolus (0.05 mg/kg), combined with a subsequent continuous infusion (0.1 mg/kg/h), led to temporally stable measures of stimulus-evoked activity and functional connectivity throughout the anesthesia. Deviating from the above protocol—by omitting the bolus, lowering the medetomidine dose, or using the subcutaneous route—compromised the stability of these measures in the initial two-hour period. We conclude that both an appropriate protocol of medetomidine administration and a suitable timing of fMRI experiments are crucial for obtaining consistent results. These factors should be considered for the design and interpretation of future rat fMRI studies.



2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramana V. Vishnubhotla ◽  
Rupa Radhakrishnan ◽  
Kestas Kveraga ◽  
Rachael Deardorff ◽  
Chithra Ram ◽  
...  

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of an intensive 8-day Samyama meditation program on the brain functional connectivity using resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI).Methods: Thirteen Samyama program participants (meditators) and 4 controls underwent fMRI brain scans before and after the 8-day residential meditation program. Subjects underwent fMRI with a blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) contrast at rest and during focused breathing. Changes in network connectivity before and after Samyama program were evaluated. In addition, validated psychological metrics were correlated with changes in functional connectivity.Results: Meditators showed significantly increased network connectivity between the salience network (SN) and default mode network (DMN) after the Samyama program (p < 0.01). Increased connectivity within the SN correlated with an improvement in self-reported mindfulness scores (p < 0.01).Conclusion: Samyama, an intensive silent meditation program, favorably increased the resting-state functional connectivity between the salience and default mode networks. During focused breath watching, meditators had lower intra-network connectivity in specific networks. Furthermore, increased intra-network connectivity correlated with improved self-reported mindfulness after Samyama.Clinical Trials Registration: [https://clinicaltrials.gov], Identifier: [NCT04366544]. Registered on 4/17/2020.



2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 875-884 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongyu Xie ◽  
David Y Chung ◽  
Sreekanth Kura ◽  
Kazutaka Sugimoto ◽  
Sanem A Aykan ◽  
...  

Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI) is a standard approach to examine resting state functional connectivity (RSFC), but fMRI in animal models is challenging. Recently, functional optical intrinsic signal imaging—which relies on the same hemodynamic signal underlying BOLD fMRI—has been developed as a complementary approach to assess RSFC in mice. Since it is difficult to ensure that an animal is in a truly resting state while awake, RSFC measurements under anesthesia remain an important approach. Therefore, we systematically examined measures of RSFC using non-invasive, widefield optical intrinsic signal imaging under five different anesthetics in male C57BL/6J mice. We find excellent seed-based, global, and interhemispheric connectivity using tribromoethanol (Avertin) and ketamine–xylazine, comparable to results in the literature including awake animals. Urethane anesthesia yielded intermediate results, while chloral hydrate and isoflurane were both associated with poor RSFC. Furthermore, we found a correspondence between the strength of RSFC and the power of low-frequency hemodynamic fluctuations. In conclusion, Avertin and ketamine–xylazine provide robust and reproducible measures of RSFC in mice, whereas chloral hydrate and isoflurane do not.



2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 430
Author(s):  
Miseon Shim ◽  
Han-Jeong Hwang ◽  
Ulrike Kuhl ◽  
Hyeon-Ae Jeon

To what extent are different levels of expertise reflected in the functional connectivity of the brain? We addressed this question by using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in mathematicians versus non-mathematicians. To this end, we investigated how the two groups of participants differ in the correlation of their spontaneous blood oxygen level-dependent fluctuations across the whole brain regions during resting state. Moreover, by using the classification algorithm in machine learning, we investigated whether the resting-state fMRI networks between mathematicians and non-mathematicians were distinguished depending on features of functional connectivity. We showed diverging involvement of the frontal–thalamic–temporal connections for mathematicians and the medial–frontal areas to precuneus and the lateral orbital gyrus to thalamus connections for non-mathematicians. Moreover, mathematicians who had higher scores in mathematical knowledge showed a weaker connection strength between the left and right caudate nucleus, demonstrating the connections’ characteristics related to mathematical expertise. Separate functional networks between the two groups were validated with a maximum classification accuracy of 91.19% using the distinct resting-state fMRI-based functional connectivity features. We suggest the advantageous role of preconfigured resting-state functional connectivity, as well as the neural efficiency for experts’ successful performance.



2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 1130-1141
Author(s):  
Anne-Sophie Käsbauer ◽  
Paola Mengotti ◽  
Gereon R. Fink ◽  
Simone Vossel

Although multiple studies characterized the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ), little is known about the link between rTPJ rsFC and cognitive functions. Given a putative involvement of rTPJ in both reorienting of attention and the updating of probabilistic beliefs, this study characterized the relationship between rsFC of rTPJ with dorsal and ventral attention systems and these two cognitive processes. Twenty-three healthy young participants performed a modified location-cueing paradigm with true and false prior information about the percentage of cue validity to assess belief updating and attentional reorienting. Resting-state fMRI was recorded before and after the task. Seed-based correlation analysis was employed, and correlations of each behavioral parameter with rsFC before the task, as well as with changes in rsFC after the task, were assessed in an ROI-based approach. Weaker rsFC between rTPJ and right intraparietal sulcus before the task was associated with relatively faster updating of the belief that the cue will be valid after false prior information. Moreover, relatively faster belief updating, as well as faster reorienting, were related to an increase in the interhemispheric rsFC between rTPJ and left TPJ after the task. These findings are in line with task-based connectivity studies on related attentional functions and extend results from stroke patients demonstrating the importance of interhemispheric parietal interactions for behavioral performance. The present results not only highlight the essential role of parietal rsFC for attentional functions but also suggest that cognitive processing during a task changes connectivity patterns in a performance-dependent manner.



2019 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 10-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela V. Spalatro ◽  
Federico Amianto ◽  
Zirui Huang ◽  
Federico D’Agata ◽  
Mauro Bergui ◽  
...  

AbstractBackground:Despite the great number of resting state functional connectivity studies on Eating Disorders (ED), no biomarkers could be detected yet. Therefore, we here focus on a different measure of resting state activity that is neuronal variability. The objective of this study was to investigate neuronal variability in the resting state of women with ED and to correlate possible differences with clinical and psychopathological indices.Methods:58 women respectively 25 with Anorexia Nervosa (AN), 16 with Bulimia Nervosa (BN) and 17 matched healthy controls (CN) were enrolled for the study. All participants were tested with a battery of psychometric tests and underwent a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) resting state scanning. We investigated topographical patterns of variability measured by the Standard Deviation (SD) of the Blood-Oxygen-Level-Dependent (BOLD) signal (as a measure of neuronal variability) in the resting-state and their relationship to clinical and psychopathological indices.Results:Neuronal variability was increased in both anorectic and bulimic subjects specifically in the Ventral Attention Network (VAN) compared to healthy controls. No significant differences were found in the other networks. Significant correlations were found between neuronal variability of VAN and various clinical and psychopathological indices.Conclusions:We here show increased neuronal variability of VAN in ED patients. As the VAN is relevant for switching between endogenous and exogenous stimuli, our results showing increased neuronal variability suggest unstable balance between body attention and attention to external world. These results offer new perspective on the neurobiological basis of ED. Clinical and therapeutic implication will be discussed.





2020 ◽  
Vol 124 (6) ◽  
pp. 1839-1856
Author(s):  
Rebekka Schröder ◽  
Anna-Maria Kasparbauer ◽  
Inga Meyhöfer ◽  
Maria Steffens ◽  
Peter Trautner ◽  
...  

This study provides a comprehensive investigation of blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional connectivity during smooth pursuit eye movements. Results from a large sample of healthy participants suggest that key oculomotor regions interact closely with each other but also with regions not primarily associated with eye movements. Understanding functional connectivity during smooth pursuit is important, given its potential role as an endophenotype of psychoses.



2013 ◽  
Vol 203 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva R. Kenny ◽  
John T. O'Brien ◽  
Michael J. Firbank ◽  
Andrew M. Blamire

BackgroundResting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be used to measure correlations in spontaneous low-frequency fluctuations in the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal which represent functional connectivity between key brain areas.AimsTo investigate functional connectivity with regions hypothesised to be differentially affected in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) compared with Alzheimer's disease and controls.MethodFifteen participants with probable DLB, 16 with probable Alzheimer's disease and 16 controls were scanned in the resting-state using a 3T scanner. The BOLD signal time-series of fluctuations in seed regions were correlated with all other voxels to measure functional connectivity.ResultsParticipants with DLB and Alzheimer's disease showed greater caudate and thalamic connectivity compared with controls. Those with DLB showed greater putamen connectivity compared with those with Alzheimer's disease and the controls. No regions showed less connectivity in DLB or Alzheimer's disease v. controls, or in DLB v. Alzheimer's disease.ConclusionsAltered connectivity in DLB and Alzheimer's disease provides new insights into the neurobiology of these disorders and may aid in earlier diagnosis.



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