Measurement of Metabolite Concentration Changes in the Rat Barrel Cortex During Sustained Trigeminal Stimulation

Nathalie Just¹, Rolf Gruetter¹, ²

Oxidative metabolism is considered to be the primary mechanism to fulfill the brains energetic demands both at rest and during activation. In the present work, functional MR spectroscopy was performed in a rat model during prolonged stimulation and rest. Timecourses of metabolite concentrations demonstrated significant positive changes for [Lactate] and [Glutamate] during sustained barrel cortex activation relative to rest while [Glucose] and [Aspartate] diminished in line with previous studies in humans. For the first time, the dynamics of metabolite concentration during sustained somatosensory activation in the rats using fMRS were evaluated.