Neuroimaging of Gut Nutrient Perception

Nutrient perception in the gut is important for the maintenance of nutrient and energy balance in the body. Recently, nutrient perception has attracted the attention of medical researchers, as it may provide an opportunity to prevent obesity and associated disease. Recent progress in functional MRI (fMRI) techniques have enabled noninvasive investigation of whole brain function during the processing of information regarding ingested nutrients from the gut depending on the feeding status in both rodents and human subjects. However, the fMRI technique still has substantial problems because it relies on blood oxygenation levels. Here, a novel fMRI technique is introduced that solves this problem for rodent fMRI studies and fMRI studies of the gut-brain axis.