Functional connectivity change of the rat brain in response to sensory stimuli using functional near-infrared brain imaging

PurposeBecause the brain can divide into many separate regions structurally and these regions don’t exist independently in terms of their function, there are some tendencies between these regions.MethodsThis functional connectivity has been analyzed using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), but in recent, diffuse optical tomography (DOT) has started to analyze these connectivity. In our experiment, we measured the coactivation in brain regions in response to sensory stimulation using CW-DOT.ResultsConcentration changes in oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin was calculated using reconstructed absorption coefficients at each nodes in finiteelement mesh. Then these time-series node data were mapped on our rat brain MR image. In addition, we analyzed coactivation by calculating correlation coefficients between time-series node data and standard response pattern of two parameters.ConclusionsWe ascertained that some brain regions were coactivated under sensory stimulation.