Nathalie Just1,2, Carl Petersen3,
Rolf Gruetter1,4
1LIFMET, CIBM/EPFL,
Lausanne, Switzerland; 2Department of Radiology, UNIL, Lausanne,
Switzerland; 3LSENS, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland; 4Department
of Radiology, UNIL& HUG, Lausanne & Geneve, Switzerland
The barrel cortex of the rodent represents the equivalent of the visual area in humans. The mouse barrel cortex is highly organized for processing somatosensory information and represents an attractive model for the development of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging methods of small structures. However, MR functional investigations remain challenging due to a poor signal to noise ratio. In the present study, we propose to address the feasibility of high field fMRI methods to obtain BOLD responses in the mouse barrel cortex following electrical stimulation of the whisker pad under controlled physiological conditions.