Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Sep 22;9(10):516.
doi: 10.3390/vetsci9100516.

Effects of Anesthesia on Cerebral Blood Flow and Functional Connectivity of Nonhuman Primates

Xiaodong Zhang  1
Affiliations
Review

Effects of Anesthesia on Cerebral Blood Flow and Functional Connectivity of Nonhuman Primates

Xiaodong Zhang. Vet Sci. .

Abstract

Nonhuman primates (NHPs) are the closest living relatives of humans and play a critical and unique role in neuroscience research and pharmaceutical development. General anesthesia is usually required in neuroimaging studies of NHPs to keep the animal from stress and motion. However, the adverse effects of anesthesia on cerebral physiology and neural activity are pronounced and can compromise the data collection and interpretation. Functional connectivity is frequently examined using resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI) to assess the functional abnormality in the animal brain under anesthesia. The fMRI signal can be dramatically suppressed by most anesthetics in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, rsfMRI studies may be further compromised by inter-subject variations when the sample size is small (as seen in most neuroscience studies of NHPs). Therefore, proper use of anesthesia is strongly demanded to ensure steady and consistent physiology maintained during rsfMRI data collection of each subject. The aim of this review is to summarize typical anesthesia used in rsfMRI scans of NHPs and the effects of anesthetics on cerebral physiology and functional connectivity. Moreover, the protocols with optimal rsfMRI data acquisition and anesthesia procedures for functional connectivity study of macaque monkeys are introduced.

Keywords: alfaxalone; functional connectivity; isoflurane; ketamine; monkey; rsfMRI.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Demonstration of the multiband MRI technique to improve detection sensitivity of BOLD signal in anesthetized monkeys on a Siemens TIM Trio 3T scanner with an 8-channel array volume coil. (A) Normalized correlation maps of the default mode network (DMN) of anesthetized (1% isoflurane) rhesus monkeys scanned by using the multiband echo planar imaging (multiband EPI) sequence with the parameters: TR = 1059 ms/TE = 25 ms, MB factor = 4, voxel size=1.5 mm × 1.5 mm × 1.5 mm, time of acquisition = 10 min), and conventional single-shot EPI acquisition (conventional EPI) with TR = 2190 ms/TE=25 ms, voxel size=1.5 mm × 1.5 mm × 1.5 mm, time of acquisition = 10 min. The z-score threshold: p < 8 × 10−18 plus cluster threshold 169 mm3/overall, mean ± stdev. n = 4. *: p = 0.08, paired t-test. (B) Comparison of normalized voxel numbers (normalized by average voxel numbers across DMN from the two EPI acquisitions (multiband EPI vs. single EPI). MB, multiband.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Nicholson A., Klaunberg B. Chapter 30—Anesthetic Considerations for In Vivo Imaging Studies. In: Fish R.E., Brown M.J., Danneman P.J., Karas A.Z., editors. Anesthesia and Analgesia in Laboratory Animals. 2nd ed. Academic Press; San Diego, CA, USA: 2008. pp. 629–639.
    1. Flecknell P.A. Anaesthesia of animals for biomedical research. Br. J. Anaesth. 1993;71:885–894. doi: 10.1093/bja/71.6.885. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Gaertner D.J., Hallman T.M., Hankenson F.C., Batchelder M.A. Chapter 10—Anesthesia and Analgesia for Laboratory Rodents. In: Fish R.E., Brown M.J., Danneman P.J., Karas A.Z., editors. Anesthesia and Analgesia in Laboratory Animals. 2nd ed. Academic Press; San Diego, CA, USA: 2008. pp. 239–297.
    1. Armitage-Chan E. Chapter 13—Anesthesia and Analgesia in Dogs and Cats. In: Fish R.E., Brown M.J., Danneman P.J., Karas A.Z., editors. Anesthesia and Analgesia in Laboratory Animals. 2nd ed. Academic Press; San Diego, CA, USA: 2008. pp. 365–384.
    1. Popilskis S.J., Lee D.R., Elmore D.B. Chapter 12—Anesthesia and Analgesia in Nonhuman Primates. In: Fish R.E., Brown M.J., Danneman P.J., Karas A.Z., editors. Anesthesia and Analgesia in Laboratory Animals. 2nd ed. Academic Press; San Diego, CA, USA: 2008. pp. 335–363.

LinkOut - more resources