However, only a few investigators have explored brainstem function in humans using fMRI techniques and a few have even extended this into exploring regional activation patterns within the spinal cord. Since the advent of human functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) in the early 1990s, thousands of scientific investigations have explored brain activation patterns during various challenges. ![]() Since many pathophysiological conditions no doubt involve changes in brainstem function and structure, defining these changes will likely result in a greater ability to develop more effective treatment regimens. More recently we have successfully recorded sympathetic nerve activity concurrently with functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brainstem, which will allow us, for the first time to explore brainstem sites directly responsible for conditions such as hypertension. We and others have begun to explore changes in brainstem activity in humans during a number of challenges, including cutaneous and muscle pain, as well as during maneuvers that evoke increases in sympathetic nerve activity. Recent advances in the collection and processing of magnetic resonance images have resulted in the possibility of exploring brainstem activity changes in awake healthy individuals and in those with various clinical conditions. It is important that human brainstem function is explored given that many neurological conditions, from obstructive sleep apnea, chronic pain, and hypertension, likely involve significant changes in the processing of information within the brainstem. Despite the accumulation of a considerable body of knowledge in, primarily, anesthetized preparations, relatively few studies have explored brainstem function in awake humans. Over the past half a century, many investigations in experimental animal have explored the functional roles of specific regions in the brainstem. ![]() 2School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.1Department of Anatomy and Histology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
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