title: MRI in small brains displaying extensive plasticity.
abstract: Manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (ME-MRI), blood oxygen-level-dependent functional MRI (BOLD fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can now be applied to animal species as small as mice or songbirds. These techniques confirmed previous findings but are also beginning to reveal new phenomena that were difficult or impossible to study previously. These imaging techniques will lead to major technical and conceptual advances in systems neurosciences. We illustrate these new developments with studies of the song control and auditory systems in songbirds, a spatially organized neuronal circuitry that mediates the acquisition, production and perception of complex learned vocalizations. This neural system is an outstanding model for studying vocal learning, brain steroid hormone action, brain plasticity and lateralization of brain function.
authors.affiliation: Bio-Imaging Lab, University of Antwerp, B-2020 Antwerp, Belgium. annemie.vanderlinden@ua.ac.be
authors.forename: Annemie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Van der Linden
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Van Meir
authors.forename: Tiny
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Boumans
authors.forename: Colline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Poirier
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Balthazart
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D051379:Mice; D023421:Models, Animal; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D020308:Songbirds