Classification of Neural Activity Patterns Observed by PhMRI Upon Pharmacological Interventions in Rats

Basil Knnecke¹, Andreas Bruns¹, Eric Prinssen¹, Jean-Luc Moreau¹, Joseph G. Wettstein¹, Markus von Kienlin¹, Cline Risterucci¹

Preclinical pharmacological fMRI (phMRI) has been successfully used to elucidate the effects of psychoactive drugs on regional cerebral activity, but comparative meta-analyses of study ensembles are largely missing. The present work provides such a systematic and quantitative analysis of perfusion-based phMRI data obtained upon interventions with an extensive set of neuroactive reference compounds impacting on the domains of anxiety and depression. Neural activity patterns detected by phMRI were subjected to principal component analysis in order to yield specific signatures for the drugs modes-of-action and objective measures of dose-effect and treatment duration-effect relationships.