Abstract

Activation flow coupling (AFC), changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF) due to changes in neural activity with functional stimulation, provides the physiological basis of many neuroimaging techniques. Hypercapnia leads to an increase in CBF while neural activity remains unaffected. Laser Doppler (LD) flowmetry was used to measure CBF changes (LDCBF) in the somatosensory cortex due to periodic electrical forepaw stimulation (4 s in duration) before and during graded hypercapnia (3% CO2, 5% CO2 and 10% CO2). With increasing CO2 concentrations, the baseline LDCBF progressively increased. The peak height (PH) of the LDCBF response, expressed as a percent change from the observed baseline for each hypercapnic state, significantly decreased (P<0.05) with increasing CO2 concentrations. However, the absolute magnitude of the LDCBF change was independent of CO2 concentration. The temporal dynamics of the LDCBF response during hypercapnia were significantly prolonged compared to baseline conditions (P<0.05).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)82-88
Number of pages7
JournalBrain Research
Volume911
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 17 2001

Keywords

  • Activation-flow coupling
  • Cerebral blood flow
  • Hypercapnia
  • Laser Doppler

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