Abstract #1161

Deakin J, Williams S, Lees J, Richardson P, McKie S

Direct pharmacological challenge-fMRI is a method to study the dynamic effects of drugs on brain haemodynamics. We have developed an alternative analysis method using SPM to detect drug-induced BOLD signal changes without prior knowledge of pharmacokinetics or subjective effects. Two psychiatric drugs (mCPP and ketamine) were used and the subjective effects measured. Our results show that this method of analysis is more robust than using the subjective ratings as it allows for individual differences and latency effects between brain regions.