title: Pial arteriolar vasomotion changes during cortical activation in rats.
abstract: The oscillatory pattern of pial arterioles, i.e. vasomotion, has been described since early 1980s, but the impact of neural activation on such oscillations has never been formally examined. Sciatic nerve stimulation, a well characterized model for studying neurovascular coupling (NVC), leads to a neural activity-related increase of pial arteriolar diameter in the contralateral hindlimb somatosensory cortex. Exploiting such an experimental model, the aim of the present study was to explore vasomotion and its changes during NVC with a novel analytical approach. Indeed, to characterize oscillations, we evaluated the total spectral power in the range 0.02-2.00 Hz and subdivided this frequency interval into seven 50% overlapping frequency bands. Results indicated that only arterioles overlying the stimulated hindlimb cortex showed a significant increase of total power, unlike arterioles overlaying the whisker barrel cortex, used as control for the vascular response specificity. The total power increase was sustained mainly by marked increments in the low frequency range, with two peaks at 0.03 and 0.08 Hz, and by a wide increase in the high frequency range (0.60-2.00 Hz) in the averaged spectrum. These activity-related spectral changes suggest: (i) that it is possible to assess the vascular responses by using total power; (ii) the existence of at least three distinct mechanisms involved in the control of NVC, two with a feedback frequency loop in the low frequency range and another one in the high range; (iii) a potential involvement of vasomotion in NVC. Moreover, these findings highlight the oscillatory nature of the mechanisms controlling NVC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Physiology G Moruzzi, University of Pisa, Via S Zeno 31, 56127, Pisa, Italy. f.vetri@dfb.unipi.it
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vetri
authors.forename: Danilo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Menicucci
authors.forename: Dominga
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lapi
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gemignani
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Colantuoni
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001160:Arterioles / Q000502:physiology*; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D005073:Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D010841:Pia Mater / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012584:Sciatic Nerve / Q000502:physiology*; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000502:physiology*; D014666:Vasomotor System / Q000502:physiology*