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Updated: Aug 20, 2026

Intracellular Recording, Sensory Field Mapping, and Culturing Identified Neurons in the Leech, Hirudo medicinalis
Published on: November 4, 2013
Effect of nerve cell currents on MRI images in snail ganglia
Tae S Park1, Sang Y Lee, Ji-Ho Park
1Graduate School of East-West Medical Science, Kyung Hee University, 1 Seochun, Kiheung, Yongin, Kyungki 449-701, Korea.
Abstract:
We performed extracellular potential recording with dissected snail ganglia inside an MRI scanner to investigate correlation between neuronal activity and MR image intensity. To increase neuronal activity we applied a nitric oxide donor, sodium-nitrosocystein, to the ganglia. The MR image intensity change in the ganglia region is correlated with the neuronal activity and was up to 5.49+/-1.94%. Since the snail has non-magnetic hemocyanins as oxygen carrying protein, it seems that the image intensity change is mainly due to the local magnetic fields produced by the neuronal currents.
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