Fig. 1.

Ex vivo MRI and DTI maps show several important features of ferret brain.

A, The folded cortical surface and gross morphology can be seen in the three-dimensional rendering where the blue crosshairs indicate the primary somatosensory cortex, which is the site for CCI placement. B, Representative slices from DTI maps of the mouse and ferret brain are shown in the same spatial scale to demonstrate differences in geometry and white matter content. The Trace map indicates the diffusivity of water in the specimen and shows contrast between gray and white matter. The DEC map is weighted by anisotropy and indicates the primary orientation of the white matter fibers (red—L/R, blue—D/V, green—A/P), which makes clear the greater complexity of the ferret white matter compared with that of the mouse. CCI, controlled cortical impact; DEC, directionally encoded color; DTI, diffusion tensor imaging; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging.