Cerebral local blood flow with a laser-Doppler flowmetry in rat sleep.

We preliminary examined whether or not laser-Doppler flowmetry was suitable for recording cerebral local blood flow (CLBF) continuously during the sleep-wakefulness cycle in the rat. As a result, this method of flowmetry led to succeed in the real-time monitoring of CLBF on the sleep-wakefulness cycle in a freely moving rat, except for the period of gross body movements. Moreover, it was proved that CLBF in the hippocampus during paradoxical sleep was significantly higher than that during slow-wave sleep. CLBF in the prefrontal cortex was a little different from that in the hippocampus.