Optical imaging of intrinsic signals induced by peripheral nerve stimulation in the in vivo rat spinal cord.

We examined neural response patterns evoked by peripheral nerve stimulation in in vivo rat spinal cords using an intrinsic optical imaging technique to monitor neural activity. Adult rats were anesthetized by urethane, and laminectomy was performed between C5 and Th1 to expose the dorsal surface of the cervical spinal cord. The median, ulnar, and radial nerves were dissected, and bipolar electrodes were implanted in the forelimb. Changes in optical reflectance were recorded from the dorsal cervical spinal cord in response to simultaneous stimulation of the median and ulnar nerves using a differential video acquisition system. In the region of the cervical spinal cord, intrinsic optical signals were detected between C5 and Th1 at wavelengths of 605, 630, 730, 750, and 850 nm: the image with the largest signal intensity and highest contrast was obtained at 605 nm. The signal intensity and response area expanded with an increase in the stimulation intensity and varied with the depth of the focal plane of the macroscope. The intrinsic optical response was mostly eliminated by Cd(2+), suggesting that the detected signals were mainly mediated by postsynaptic mechanisms activated by sensory nerve fibers. Furthermore, we succeeded in imaging neural activity evoked by individual peripheral nerve stimulation. We found that the response areas related to each peripheral nerve exhibited different spatial distribution patterns and that there were animal-to-animal variations in the evoked neural responses in the spinal cord. The results obtained in this study confirmed that intrinsic optical imaging is a very useful technique for acquiring fine functional maps of the in vivo spinal cord.