Open-field mouse brain PET: design optimisation and detector characterisation

'Open-field' PET, in which an animal is free to move within an enclosed space during imaging, is a very promising advance for neuroscientific research. It provides a key advantage over conventional imaging under anesthesia by enabling functional changes in the brain to be correlated with an animal's behavioural response to environmental or pharmacologic stimuli. Previously we have demonstrated the feasibility of open-field imaging of rats using motion compensation techniques applied to a commercially available PET scanner. However, this approach of 'retro-fitting' motion compensation techniques to an existing system is limited by the inherent geometric and performance constraints of the system. The goal of this project is to develop a purpose-built PET scanner with geometry, motion tracking and imaging performance tailored and optimised for open-field imaging of the mouse brain. The design concept is a rail-based sliding tomograph which moves according to the animal's motion. Ou...

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