Ania Benítez1,2, Blanca Lizarbe3, Pilar López-Larrubia1, Luis Lago-Fernández2, Manuel Sánchez-Montañés2, and Sebastián Cerdán1
1Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas "Alberto Sols", Madrid, Spain, 2Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain, 3École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
We investigate the global cerebral response to appetite in mice by functional Diffusion Weighted Imaging,
implementing two independent, but complementary, methods of data analysis; a) Model-free
classification algorithm and b) Biexponential diffusion parameter fittings.
The model-free approach allowed the pixel by pixel calculation of appetite index
maps, used to classify the brain between fed and fasted conditions.
Biexponential model fittings allowed the calculation of diffusion parameter
maps, revealing significant increases in diffusion parameters through the whole
fasted brain. Both methods detected an asymmetric cerebral response to appetite
with the right cerebral hemisphere becoming more responsive.
