Functional neuroimaging methods like fMRI and PET are vital in neuroscience research, but require that subjects remain still throughout the scan. In animal research, anesthetic agents are typically applied to facilitate the acquisition of high-quality data with minimal motion artifact. However, anesthesia can have profound effects on brain metabolism, selectively altering dynamic neural networks and confounding the acquired data. To overcome the challenge, we have developed a novel head fixation device designed to support awake rat brain imaging. A validation experiment demonstrated that the device effectively minimizes animal motion throughout the scan, with mean absolute displacement and mean relative displacement of 0.0256 (SD: 0.001) and 0.009 (SD: 0.002), across eight evaluated subjects throughout fMRI image acquisition (total scanning time per subject: 31 min, 12 s). Furthermore, the awake scans did not induce discernable stress to the animals, with stable physiological parameters throughout the scan (Mean HR: 344, Mean RR: 56, Mean SpO: 94 %) and unaltered serum corticosterone levels ( = 0.159). In conclusion, the device presented in this paper offers an effective and safe method of acquiring functional brain images in rats, allowing researchers to minimize the confounding effects of anesthetic use.

中文翻译：

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一种用于采集清醒大鼠脑部图像的新型约束装置

fMRI 和 PET 等功能性神经影像方法在神经科学研究中至关重要，但要求受试者在整个扫描过程中保持静止。在动物研究中，麻醉剂通常用于促进以最小的运动伪影获取高质量数据。然而，麻醉会对大脑新陈代谢产生深远的影响，选择性地改变动态神经网络并混淆所获得的数据。为了克服这一挑战，我们开发了一种新型头部固定装置，旨在支持清醒大鼠脑部成像。验证实验表明，该设备有效地最大限度地减少了整个扫描过程中的动物运动，在整个 fMRI 图像采集过程中（总扫描时间），八名评估对象的平均绝对位移和平均相对位移分别为 0.0256 (SD: 0.001) 和 0.009 (SD: 0.002)。每个科目：31 分 12 秒）。此外，清醒扫描不会对动物产生明显的压力，整个扫描过程中生理参数稳定（平均 HR：344，平均 RR：56，平均 SpO：94 %），血清皮质酮水平未改变（= 0.159）。总之，本文提出的设备提供了一种有效且安全的获取大鼠功能性大脑图像的方法，使研究人员能够最大限度地减少麻醉使用的混杂影响。