Abstract #0908

BOLD fMRI in Infants Under Sedation: Comparing the Impact of Pentobarbital and Propofol on Auditory and Language Activation and Connectivity

Mark William DiFrancesco¹, Prasanna Karunanayaka², Sara Robertson, Scott K. Holland

¹Pediatric Neuroimaging Research Consortium, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, United States; ²The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA, United States

We elucidate differences in language network function and intrinsic connectivity in infants, as measured by BOLD fMRI and independent component analysis (ICA), when sedated under two common clinical protocols; one using Nembutal and the other Propofol. BOLD response was measured for passive story-listening stimulation using an intermittent event-related imaging protocol with which temporal evolution of language processing was explored. Propofol and Nembutal were found to have distinct and complementary responses to story-listening with corroborative differences in auditory/language network connectivity by ICA. These may suggest a breakdown of top-down feedback for Propofol vs. the lack of bottom-up processing for Nembutal.