Aileen Schroeter1, Joanes Grandjean1, Aline Seuwen1, Bechara Saab2, Markus Rudin1, 3
1Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University and ETH, Zrich, Switzerland; 2Institute for Brain Research, University and ETH, Zrich, Switzerland; 3Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University, Zrich, Switzerland
FMRI has been widely used to assess changes in brain activity evoked by innocuous and noxious stimuli. In our laboratory, the application of established sensory stimulation paradigms to isoflurane-anesthetized mice yields consistent bilateral BOLD signal changes in the brain. This observation stands in contrast to the majority of fMRI studies reporting predominantly contralateral brain responses during unilateral innocuous and mild noxious paw stimulation in healthy rats and mice. The presented study deals with the characterization and clarification of the bilateral BOLD signal change in the mouse brain and should yield to more insight into interhemispheric processing of unilateral peripheral stimuli.