Light sedation with short habituation time for large-scale functional magnetic resonance imaging studies in rats.

ABSTRACT: Traditionally, preclinical resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have been performed in anesthetized animals. Nevertheless, as anesthesia affects the functional connectivity (FC) in the brain, there has been a growing interest in imaging in the awake state. Obviously, awake imaging requires resource- and time-consuming habituation prior to data acquisition to reduce the stress and motion of the animals. Light sedation has been a less widely exploited alternative for awake imaging, requiring shorter habituation times, while still reducing the effect of anesthesia. Here, we imaged 102 rats under light sedation and 10 awake animals to conduct an FC analysis. We established an automated data-processing pipeline suitable for both groups. Additionally, the same pipel

SUBMITTER: Dvorakova L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9285600 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature