Pharmacological MRI combined with electrophysiology in non-human primates: Effects of Lidocaine on primary visual cortex

Pharmacological magnetic resonance imaging (phMRI) is a current direction in biomedical imaging, whose goal is the non-invasive monitoring of pharmacological manipulations on brain processes. We have developed techniques combining phMRI with simultaneous monitoring of electrophysiological activity during local injections of pharmacological agents into defined brain regions. We have studied effects of the local anesthetic Lidocaine on BOLD activity in primary visual cortex (V1) of non-human primates. Using independent component analysis (ICA), we describe and quantify the pharmacodynamics and spatial distribution of Lidocaine effects on visually evoked V1 BOLD signal in a dose-dependent manner. We relate these findings to effects of Lidocaine on neural activity as estimated by multi unit activity (MUA) and the local field potential (LFP). Our results open the way for specific fMRI-based investigations regarding the impact of pharmacological agents on the BOLD signal and its coupling to the underlying neuronal activity.