FMRI activity in the macaque cerebellum evoked by intracortical microstimulation of the primary somatosensory cortex: evidence for polysynaptic propagation

PLoS One. 2012;7(10):e47515. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0047515. Epub 2012 Oct 31.

Abstract

Simultaneous electrical microstimulation (EM) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a useful tool for probing connectivity across brain areas in vivo. However, it is not clear whether intracortical EM can evoke blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signal in areas connected polysynaptically to the stimulated site. To test for the presence of the BOLD activity evoked by polysynaptic propagation of the EM signal, we conducted simultaneous fMRI and EM in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) of macaque monkeys. We in fact observed BOLD activations in the contralateral cerebellum which is connected to the stimulation site (i.e. S1) only through polysynaptic pathways. Furthermore, the magnitude of cerebellar activations was dependent on the current amplitude of the EM, confirming the EM is the cause of the cerebellar activations. These results suggest the importance of considering polysynaptic signal propagation, particularly via pathways including subcortical structures, for correctly interpreting 'functional connectivity' as assessed by simultaneous EM and fMRI.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Brain Mapping
  • Electric Stimulation
  • Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory*
  • Macaca / physiology*
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging*
  • Oxygen / metabolism
  • Somatosensory Cortex / physiology

Substances

  • Oxygen

Grants and funding

This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research (19002010), a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) (24220008) from the Ministry for Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and by the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST) from Japan Science and Technology Agency to Y. M.; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Research Fellowships for Young Scientists to T.M. (218747), K.T. (211438) and K.M. (234682); Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up to K.W.K. (23800017) from JSPS. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.