Blood flow activation in rat somatosensory cortex under sciatic nerve stimulation revealed by laser speckle imaging*

In many functional neuroimaging research the change of local cerebral blood flow (CBF) induced by sensory stimulation is regarded as an indicator of the change in cortical neuronal activity although a precise and full spatio-temporal description of local CBF response coupled to neural activity has still not been laid out. Using the laser speckle imaging technique a relatively large exposed area in somatosensory cortex of rat was imaged for the observation of the variations of CBF during sciatic nerve stimulation. The results showed that cerebral blood flow activation was spatially localized and discretely distributed in the targeted microvasculature. Individual arteries, veins and capillaries in different diameters were activated with the time going. The response pattern of CBF related to the function of brainactivity and energy metabolism is delineated exactly.