"Our goal is to use manganese as an activity marker for identifying entire patterns of brain activation in dominant and subordinate crayfish," said Herberholz. "We also want to compare changes that occur before and after an aggressive encounter."
MRI technology, which was developed for imaging the human brain, has rarely been used to study a brain of the crayfish's small size. To overcome the limitations of the technology, Dr. Hu and Dr. Herberholz are working to improve the resolution of their small animal MRI scanner and develop a more sensitive coil customized to the crayfish's head.
Manganese can be rapidly infused into the crayfish brain and is well tolerated. For these reasons, Hu projected it will be possible to conduct longitudinal studies of individual crayfish using MRI technology to assess changes that occur in its brain over an extended period.
Dr. Hu and Dr. Edwards said the development of manganese-enhanced MRI for studying the crayfish could not have happened without the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience. Dr. Hu recalled an initial meeting last year when Edwards spoke of his need to image the crayfish brain. "I had never before worked with crayfish," he said. "Now we have a powerful new tool for studying the invertebrate brain."
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Contact: Holly Korschun
hkorsch@emory.edu
404-727-3990
Emory University Health Sciences Center
13-Jun-2003