title: Optogenetic fMRI sheds light on the neural basis of the BOLD signal.
abstract: Blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is widely used as a measure of neuronal activity, despite an incomplete understanding of the hemodynamic and neural bases for BOLD signals. Recent work by Lee and colleagues investigated whether activating genetically specified neurons elicits BOLD responses. Integrating optogenetic control of specific cells and fMRI showed that stimulating excitatory neurons triggers a positive BOLD signal with conventional kinetics locally and delayed weaker BOLD signals distally.
authors.affiliation: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging, Faculty of Medicine, 7491 Trondheim, Norway. helen.palmer@ntnu.no
authors.forename: Helen S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Palmer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D055620:Optical Phenomena; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen