First published online July 20, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 2902-2910 (2006)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2006
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02348
Functional imaging of dolphin brain metabolism and blood flow
Sam Ridgway1,2,*,
Dorian Houser3,
James Finneran1,
Don Carder1,
Mandy Keogh1,
William Van Bonn1,
Cynthia Smith1,
Miriam Scadeng2,
David Dubowitz2,
Robert Mattrey2 and
Carl Hoh2
1 SPAWAR Systems Center San Diego, Division 235, 53560 Hull Street, San
Diego, CA 92152-5001, USA
2 School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, CA 92093,
USA
3 BIOMIMETICA, 7951 Shantung Drive, Santee, CA 92071, USA

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Fig. 1. A trained dolphin slides out of the water onto a padded transport mat. (A)
Dolphin swims around its bay enclosure. (B) The dolphin is signaled to station
in front of the trainer. (C) The dolphin slides out onto the padded transport
mat. (D) The padded sides of the transport mat are brought together so that
the dolphin is secure in the mat with the lateral walls up and fastened.
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Fig. 2. Unihemispheric slow waves appearing on the left brain hemisphere EEG 1 h
after a dose of 0.55 mg kg-1 of diazepam. ECG,
electrocardiogram.
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Fig. 3. (A) Ultrasound of the vetrum of the dolphin's neck showing the common
brachiocephalic vein (outlined by arrows) where the ligand was injected (in
the past this vein was sometimes called innominate). (B) Illustration from a
dissection showing the anatomy of the area.
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Fig. 4. MRI scan of dolphin WEN with a 0.5 T AIRIS II open scanner. The animal
rests on a thin rubber pad. The forward half of the body rests on the scanner
while the rear body rests on a special table constructed for dolphin scans.
Attendants stabilize the animal and keep it wet while the trainer is stationed
in front of the dolphin. A standard human back coil is placed around the
dolphin's head immediately behind the blowhole to cover the area of the
brain.
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Fig. 5. (A) Time-of-flight magnetic resonance image (MRI) from dolphin WEN
demonstrating anterior blood flow through arteries of the brain outlined by
the box. (B) Fused MRI and SPECT images from co-registered scans made in the
same dolphin. The colored region corresponds to a reduction in blood flow; the
color bar indicates the relative degree of blood flow reduction with red
indicating maximum reductions in blood flow. The yellow arrow indicates the
central venous sinus. The red arrows indicate the homolog cerebral artery on
the right side of the brain that does not show blood flow reduction.
Registration, image analysis and fusion were performed with ANALYZE.
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Fig. 6. Four planes from a control FDG PET scan of dolphin WEN registered to a 0.5
T scan of the same animal. No diazepam was given before the ligand injection.
(A) left sagittal section (B) right sagittal section showing the vertex of the
skull (V) and the planes of the axial section (Ax) and coronal section (Cx).
(C) The coronal section showing the left nasal cavity (Ln), the right nasal
cavity (Rn), and the planes of the axial section (Ax), left sagittal section
(Lx), and the right sagittal section (Rx). (D) Axial section. The color bar
indicates relative degree of glucose metabolism with red indicating
maximum.
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Fig. 7. A subtraction of a diazepam scan from a non-diazepam scan of dolphin WEN
registered to twelve 3.0 T MRI sections of dolphin MAY. From left to right:
coronal (A-C), axial (E-G), left sagittal (I-K) and right sagittal (M-O).
Lines on scan sections (D,H,L,P) at the bottom of each column indicate the
plane of sections from the three scans in the same column above. The color
indicates the relative degree of metabolic reduction in the diazepam scan with
red indicating maximum reductions in glucose consumption. In this series there
is an overall reduction in metabolism in the right brain hemisphere; however,
there are some areas of lower metabolism in the left hemisphere, especially in
frontal areas.
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Fig. 8. Comparison of four sections each of two different scans of dolphin OLY. The
left column (A-D) shows a scan without diazepam while the center column shows
sections from a scan with diazepam (E-H). Overall, metabolism is lower in the
left hemisphere. The color bar indicates the relative degree of glucose
metabolism in sections A-H with red indicating maximum. The right hand column
shows oblique axial scans (as indicated in the upper right, section I) of
dolphin MAY's MRI, to which have been registered the difference volumes
between the two scans. In sections J-L, the colored regions correspond to a
reduction in metabolism in the diazepam scan; the color indicates the relative
degree of metabolic reduction with red indicating maximum reductions in
glucose consumption.
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© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2006