Abstract: A major challenge in investigating the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders has been the difficulty to directly translate from human symptoms to animal models that have a unique behavioral repertoire. The brain circuit function and connectivity, which has become accessible through the broad application of fMRI in humans, might provide a link between animal models and observations in humans with psychiatric disease. However, this task has been largely unsuccessful, primarily due to the confounding effects of anesthesia in most animal fMRI experiments. Our lab has established an approach that allows animal's brain circuit function to be examined at the awake state. By utilizing this approach, we have measured the function of individual neural circuitries, the intrinsic organization of the whole-brain networks, as well as brain network reconfigurations at different neurophysiological conditions in awake rats. More recently, we have combined the awake animal imaging approach with optogenetic controls (opto-fMRI). This technique has the potential to determine how specific cell types and their signaling impact the overall brain function. Since the approach using fMRI in awake rats offers a valid method for characterizing changes in neural circuits that correlate with behavioral measurements in freely behaving animals, we are in a better position to establish a direct link between animal models and human psychiatric disorders.

~BME Faculty Host: Zhongming Liu~

***Coffee and juice will be provided at West Lafayette***