Department of Neuroscience, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, OH 44195, USA.
Engineering Core, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, OH 44195, USA.
Neuroimage. 2024 Apr 1;289:120556. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120556. Epub 2024 Feb 27.
Functional neuroimaging methods like fMRI and PET are vital in neuroscience research, but require that subjects remain still throughout the scan. In animal research, anesthetic agents are typically applied to facilitate the acquisition of high-quality data with minimal motion artifact. However, anesthesia can have profound effects on brain metabolism, selectively altering dynamic neural networks and confounding the acquired data. To overcome the challenge, we have developed a novel head fixation device designed to support awake rat brain imaging. A validation experiment demonstrated that the device effectively minimizes animal motion throughout the scan, with mean absolute displacement and mean relative displacement of 0.0256 (SD: 0.001) and 0.009 (SD: 0.002), across eight evaluated subjects throughout fMRI image acquisition (total scanning time per subject: 31 min, 12 s). Furthermore, the awake scans did not induce discernable stress to the animals, with stable physiological parameters throughout the scan (Mean HR: 344, Mean RR: 56, Mean SpO: 94 %) and unaltered serum corticosterone levels (p = 0.159). In conclusion, the device presented in this paper offers an effective and safe method of acquiring functional brain images in rats, allowing researchers to minimize the confounding effects of anesthetic use.
功能神经影像学方法，如 fMRI 和 PET，在神经科学研究中至关重要，但需要研究对象在整个扫描过程中保持静止。在动物研究中，通常应用麻醉剂来促进高质量数据的获取，同时最大限度地减少运动伪影。然而，麻醉会对大脑代谢产生深远影响，选择性地改变动态神经网络，并使获得的数据产生混淆。为了克服这一挑战，我们开发了一种新型的头部固定装置，旨在支持清醒大鼠的大脑成像。一项验证实验表明，该装置在整个扫描过程中有效地最大限度地减少了动物的运动，在 8 个接受 fMRI 图像采集的评估对象中，平均绝对位移和平均相对位移分别为 0.0256（标准差：0.001）和 0.009（标准差：0.002）（每个对象的总扫描时间：31 分钟，12 秒）。此外，清醒扫描不会对动物产生明显的应激，整个扫描过程中生理参数稳定（平均心率：344，平均 RR：56，平均 SpO：94%），血清皮质酮水平也没有改变（p=0.159）。总之，本文提出的装置为在大鼠中获取功能脑图像提供了一种有效且安全的方法，使研究人员能够最大限度地减少麻醉使用的混淆影响。
