# Uncaging neurovascular plasticity

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE · 2020 · $431,750

## Abstract

The majority of current neurovascular research involves monitoring neurovascular parameters from animals
housed in a standard cage, which is clearly not an environment that mimics the human condition. Indeed,
previous findings from our lab regarding large scale plasticity in sensory cortex of rats demonstrated that
activity-dependent plasticity of whiskers cortical representations in uncaged rats shows opposite direction and
magnitude compared to activity-dependent plasticity in caged rodents. These findings suggest that the large-
scale plasticity seen in uncaged rats should also be accompanied by large scale supportive neurovascular
plasticity. We propose to study such cortical neurovascular plasticity by using our ‘naturalistic habitat’. The
naturalistic habitat is an environment which mimics the natural world of rats within the confines of a vivarium by
promoting free movement, burrowing, foraging and continuous interactions with conspecifics, which led to major
plasticity of cortical maps. To study how transfer to the naturalistic habitat for one and six months modifies the
neurovascular system, we propose to employ a battery of vascular imaging and neuronal recording techniques
within the same rat and compare the findings with rats that stayed for the same period in standard cages. Based
on our previous plasticity results, our hypothesis is that rats that stay in the naturalistic habitat will have a much
more efficient neurovascular system compared to the standard cage rats, and that longer duration in the
naturalistic habitat will entail a progressively more efficient system. In addition, in order to further improve our
animal model, we propose to divide our proposed studies into two major parts. In the first part all imaging and
recording studies will be performed in anesthetized rats. In the second part all proposed studies will be
performed on awake, head fixed rats. This design will achieve (1) further optimizing our rat model to the human
condition, and (2) ability to study the effects of anesthesia on our neurovascular model. Successful completion
of our combined aims could have major implications for the appropriateness of caged animals as a model of
healthy human neurovascular system and therefore successful completion of our proposal could lead to a more
optimal animal model that, in turn, could lead to better success of future translational neurovascular research in
healthy rodent models and in rodent models of pathological neurovascular diseases.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10108955
- **Project number:** 1R21NS119852-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE
- **Principal Investigator:** RON D FROSTIG
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $431,750
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-01 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10108955

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10108955, Uncaging neurovascular plasticity (1R21NS119852-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10108955. Licensed CC0.

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