Revisiting the cerebral hemodynamics of awake, freely moving rats with repeated ketamine self-administration using a miniature photoacoustic imaging system.

The lack of significant change in prolonged ketamine-exposed rats was potentially due to an increased ketamine tolerance. Our device can reliably detect changes in the dilation of cortical blood vessels and the CBV. This study validates the utility of the developed hmPAI system in an awake, freely moving rat model for behavioral, cognitive, and preclinical cerebral disease studies.