A novel design of rat's head positioner for MRI and its feasibility

A novel design of an animal bed, which is termed "head positioner", for fixing a rat is newly proposed in this research. The head positioner is used for a basic medical study to analyze brain activities for small animals with MRI (Magnetic resonance imaging). Various requests and specifications for it is described by investigations and our preliminary experiments in advance. A rat's head positioner is designed by a 3D CAD (Computer Aided Design) and also created by a 3D printer with using PLA (polylactic acid) resin. An MRI experiment is performed by the new head positioner and a lot of sharp images can be taken by reducing a rat's head motions. The images of the rat's brain data can be also taken with the same angle as a brain Atlas which combine geometric positions with brain functions in a form of geography. It enables us to analyze the rat's reaction from the viewpoints of the brain functions. A feasibility of the new design of rat's head positioner is demonstrated in this paper.