Deep Brain Stimulation fMRI of the Rat Ventral Posterior Medial Thalamus

Yen-Yu Ian Shih¹, Yash Vardhan Tiwari¹, William E. Rogers¹, Timothy Q. Duong¹

This study demonstrates thalamocortical connectivity by direct stimulating the ventral posterior medial thalamus in rats. Our results indicate that the barrel cortex is reliably activated and the BOLD responses exhibit frequency and amplitude-dependent properties. Cortical spreading depolarization occasionally occurred, initiating in the barrel cortex and propagating toward the midline, anterior, and posterior part of the cortex within the same hemisphere. DBS-fMRI has potential to explore/validate functional connectivity in the brain and monitor functional plasticity changes in a specific neuroanatomical pathway in vivo.