Single Neuron Activity and Tissue Oxygenation in the Cerebral Cortex.

Citation Info

Thompson, Peterson, Freeman (2003)
Single Neuron Activity and Tissue Oxygenation in the Cerebral Cortex.
Science 299: 1070-1072

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Abstract

Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) utilizes alterations in brain hemodynamics to infer changes in neural activity. Are these hemodynamic changes regulated at a spatial scale capable of resolving functional columns within the cerebral cortex? To address this, we made simultaneous measurements of tissue oxygenation and single-cell neural activity within the visual cortex. Results showed that increases in neuronal spike rate were accompanied by immediate decreases in tissue oxygenation. We used this decrease in tissue oxygenation to predict the orientation selectivity and ocular dominance of neighboring neurons. Our results establish a coupling between neural activity and oxidative metabolism, and suggest that high-resolution fMRI may be used to localize neural activity at a columnar level. Single Neuron Activity (Science 2003)

Single Neuron Activity and Tissue Oxygenation in the Cerebral Cortex.

Citation Info

Thompson, Peterson, Freeman (2003)
Single Neuron Activity and Tissue Oxygenation in the Cerebral Cortex.
Science 299: 1070-1072

Clicking either of the following will start a download of the document. Please note the file size.
(10 pages):
Acrobat file (728 kbytes, SingleNeuron.pdf) --
Press this button if you wish to receive a reprint:

Abstract

Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) utilizes alterations in brain hemodynamics to infer changes in neural activity. Are these hemodynamic changes regulated at a spatial scale capable of resolving functional columns within the cerebral cortex? To address this, we made simultaneous measurements of tissue oxygenation and single-cell neural activity within the visual cortex. Results showed that increases in neuronal spike rate were accompanied by immediate decreases in tissue oxygenation. We used this decrease in tissue oxygenation to predict the orientation selectivity and ocular dominance of neighboring neurons. Our results establish a coupling between neural activity and oxidative metabolism, and suggest that high-resolution fMRI may be used to localize neural activity at a columnar level.