fMRI detects bilateral brain network activation following unilateral chemogenetic activation of direct striatal projection neurons

• Main Authors: Yuki Nakamura, Yukari Nakamura, Assunta Pelosi, Boucif Djemai, Clément Debacker, Denis Hervé, Jean-Antoine Girault, Tomokazu Tsurugizawa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2020-10-01
• Series: NeuroImage
• Subjects: Designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs; Magnetic resonance imaging; Clozapine; Clozapine-N-Oxide; Striatum; Drd1-receptor-expressing striatal projection neurons
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811920305656

Abnormal structural and functional connectivity in the striatum during neurological disorders has been reported using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), although the effects of cell-type specific neuronal stimulation on fMRI and related behavioral alterations are not well understood. In this study, we combined DREADD technology with fMRI (“chemo-fMRI”) to investigate alterations of spontaneous neuronal activity. These were induced by the unilateral activation of dopamine D1 receptor-expressing neurons (D1-neurons) in the mouse dorsal striatum (DS). After clozapine (CLZ) stimulation of the excitatory DREADD expressed in D1-neurons, the fractional amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (fALFF) increased bilaterally in the medial thalamus, nucleus accumbens and cortex. In addition, we found that the gamma-band of local field potentials was increased in the stimulated DS and cortex bilaterally. These results provide insights for better interpretation of cell type-specific activity changes in fMRI.