Detecting Acute Cortical Layer-Specific Plasticity in Rat Model using High Field fMRI, Part 2- a Non-Thresholded, Raw Data Analysis Study

Alexandra Petiet¹, Carolyn W.-H. Wu¹

Cortical information processing is mediated by its functional organization. Here we carefully examined high- resolution spin-echo BOLD fMRI data previously collected from the high field that has excellent spatial and temporal stability. Without using conventional statistical data processing, in the raw, non-thresholded data, we quantified and compared the magnitude of cortical plasticity in different conditions, and found cortical plasticity is detectable in the layers- and location-specific manners. This finding may reflect the intrinsic interplay of S1 microcircuitry, and opens up the possibility of using BOLD fMRI to quantify changes of brain microcircuitry and functional reorganization in the diseased animal models.