Title :
Functional MRI of postnatal visual development in normal rat superior colliculi
Author :
Chan, Kevin C. ; Xing, Kai ; Cheung, Matthew M. ; Zhou, Iris Y. ; Wu, Ed.X.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Univ. of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Abstract :
This study employed blood oxygenation level-dependent functional MRI (BOLD-fMRI) to evaluate the visual responses in the superior colliculus of the developing rat brain from the time of eyelid opening to adulthood. Upon flash illumination to the contralateral eye, the regional BOLD response underwent a systematic increase in amplitude with age especially after the third postnatal week. However, no significant difference in BOLD signal increase was found between postnatal days 14 and 21. Our results constitute the first fMRI report in demonstrating the critical period of visual functions in the rat brain during maturation. This can be potentially useful in establishing the links between changes in relation to visual sensory development.
Keywords :
biomedical MRI; brain; eye; neurophysiology; obstetrics; blood oxygenation level-dependent functional MRI; contralateral eye; eyelid opening; flash illumination; functional MRI; normal rat superior colliculi; postnatal visual sensory development; rat brain maturation; regional BOLD response; visual function; Age Factors; Animals; Animals, Newborn; Female; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Photic Stimulation; Pregnancy; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Superior Colliculi; Visual Pathways;
Conference_Titel :
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2009. EMBC 2009. Annual International Conference of the IEEE
Conference_Location :
Minneapolis, MN
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-3296-7
Electronic_ISBN :
1557-170X
DOI :
10.1109/IEMBS.2009.5332756