Direct imaging of neuronal activity (DIANA) by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) could be a revolutionary approach for advancing systems neuroscience research. To independently replicate this observation, we performed fMRI experiments in anesthetized mice. The blood oxygenation level–dependent (BOLD) response to whisker stimulation was reliably detected in the primary barrel cortex before and after DIANA experiments; however, no DIANA–like fMRI peak was observed in individual animals’ data with the 50 to 300 trials. Extensively averaged data involving 1050 trials in six mice showed a flat baseline and no detectable neuronal activity–like fMRI peak. However, spurious, nonreplicable peaks were found when using a small number of trials, and artifactual peaks were detected when some outlier-like trials were excluded. Further, no detectable DIANA peak was observed in the BOLD-responding thalamus from the selected trials with the neuronal activity–like reference function in the barrel cortex. Thus, we were unable to replicate the previously reported results without data preselection.

中文翻译：

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麻醉小鼠中没有直接神经元活动相关 (DIANA) fMRI 的复制

通过功能磁共振成像（fMRI）对神经元活动进行直接成像（DIANA）可能是推进系统神经科学研究的革命性方法。为了独立复制这一观察结果，我们在麻醉小鼠中进行了功能磁共振成像实验。在 DIANA 实验之前和之后，在初级桶状皮层中可靠地检测到了对胡须刺激的血氧水平依赖性（BOLD）反应；然而，在 50 至 300 次试验的个体动物数据中，没有观察到类似 DIANA 的 fMRI 峰值。涉及 6 只小鼠的 1050 次试验的广泛平均数据显示基线平坦，并且没有可检测到的神经元活动（如功能磁共振成像峰值）。然而，当使用少量试验时，会发现虚假的、不可重复的峰，并且当排除一些异常值样试验时，会检测到人为峰。此外，在选定的试验中，在桶状皮质中具有神经元活动样参考功能的 BOLD 反应丘脑中没有观察到可检测到的 DIANA 峰值。因此，如果没有数据预选，我们无法复制之前报告的结果。