Basavaraju G. Sanganahalli1, Peter Herman1,2, Hal Blumenfeld3, Fahmeed Hyder1,4
1Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA; 2Institute of Human Physiology and Clinical Experimental Research, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary; 3Neurology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA; 4Biomedical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
We investigated intra- and inter-hemispheric effects of the rat somatosensory cortex by fMRI. We used bilateral forepaw stimulation for studying inter-hemispheric effects and whisker and forepaw of same side of the body to study intra-hemispheric effects. We found augmented BOLD signal in the contralateral forepaw region when both paws were stimulated as compared to independent stimulation of an individual paw. We found similar BOLD signal enhancement in the forelimb region when the whisker stimulation was presented simultaneously, however the whisker region was unaffected. These results suggest some hierarchical differences for intra- and inter-hemispheric interactions within the somatosensory cortex.