Padmavathi Sundaram1,
William Wells2, Darren B. Orbach1, Daniel Orringer3,
Mukund Balasubramanian1, Robert Mulkern1, Yoshio Okada4
1Radiology,
Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United
States; 2Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical
School, Boston, MA, United States; 3Neurosurgery, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States; 4Neurology, Children's
Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
This work investigates the relationship between neuronal currents and MR signals in an in vitro bloodless turtle cerebellum (Cb). While prior work has demonstrated sensitivity of MR signals to currents, the spatiotemporal relationship between MR phase and neuronal currents remains to be characterized in brain tissue. We use the turtle Cb because: (1) there are no signal contributions from blood, respiration or motion, (2) the cellular circuit is intact, (3) the preparation can withstand anoxia and is physiologically functional for several hours, and (4) it is a flat tissue with the principal neurons oriented parallel to each other.