Title
Open-field PET: Simultaneous brain functional imaging and behavioural response measurements in freely moving small animals.
Abstract
A comprehensive understanding of how the brain responds to a changing environment requires techniques capable of recording functional outputs at the whole-brain level in response to external stimuli. Positron emission tomography (PET) is an exquisitely sensitive technique for imaging brain function but the need for anaesthesia to avoid motion artefacts precludes concurrent behavioural response studies. Here, we report a technique that combines motion-compensated PET with a robotically-controlled animal enclosure to enable simultaneous brain imaging and behavioural recordings in unrestrained small animals. The technique was used to measure in vivo displacement of [11C]raclopride from dopamine D2 receptors (D2R) concurrently with changes in the behaviour of awake, freely moving rats following administration of unlabelled raclopride or amphetamine. The timing and magnitude of [11C]raclopride displacement from D2R were reliably estimated and, in the case of amphetamine, these changes coincided with a marked increase in stereotyped behaviours and hyper-locomotion. The technique, therefore, allows simultaneous measurement of changes in brain function and behavioural responses to external stimuli in conscious unrestrained animals, giving rise to important applications in behavioural neuroscience.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.11.051
NeuroImage
Keywords
Field
DocType
Awake animal PET,Behaviour,Kinetic modelling,Motion correction,Dopamine D2 receptors,Drug challenge
Amphetamine,Neuroscience,Raclopride,Psychology,Functional imaging,Cognitive psychology,Stereotypy (non-human),Positron emission tomography,Neuroimaging,Stimulus (physiology),Open field
Journal
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
188
1053-8119
1
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.36
7
15