Ketamine-Evoked Functional Connectivity Changes in Isoflurane Anaesthetised Rats

Naranjargal Dashdorj¹, Mirjam I. Schubert¹, Rob Mason², Dorothee P. Auer¹

In recent years synchronised low-frequency spontaneous fluctuations detected by fMRI BOLD signal has been widely applied to study functional connectivity networks in human subjects. Although, the nature of functional connectivity detected by spontaneous BOLD fMRI and its underlying neural correlates have not been well understood yet. Animal studies provide wider possibility of invasive and non-invasive methods. Hence, the applications of BOLD fMRI functional connectivity in animal studies are expected to facilitate in-depth understanding of low-frequency BOLD fluctuations. In particular, using psychoactive compound to study changes in functional connectivity would allow us to study changes in a given animal on same background neural activity. This study examined the spatiotemporal dynamics under isoflurane anaesthesia.