CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. medical researchers are developing functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to study early brain development.
Most fMRI studies are conducted on adults since the potential for studying early brain development has been hampered by a lack of knowledge about the basis of the fMRI signal in the developing brain, researchers said.
Now, by studying rats, Massachusetts Institute of Technology neuroscientists have discovered the fMRI signal changes during the first few weeks of life. By correcting for those changes, the researchers were able to monitor the development of the rat brain.
Determining whether analogous changes occur in humans will be important for interpreting developmental fMRI studies in young children.
"Our study lays a foundation for using fMRI to study development," said Assistant Professor Alan Jasanoff, the senior author of the study. "It establishes an approach that others can apply to investigate many aspects of neurodevelopment in very young animals."
The research was published in the Nov. 25 issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience.
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