The use of simultaneous EEG and fMRI to monitor the effects of ketamine and midazolam on brain activity in healthy adult males

EEG and fMRI are two of the principal techniques currently used to measure human brain function. However, EEG and fMRI measure different aspects of brain activity and it is unclear how the measures relate to each other. Both these techniques have the potential to provide important information in understanding how central nervous system medicines alter brain function. However, the results of previous drug studies where these two techniques are
recorded separately are difficult to reconcile. While technically challenging it is now possible to simultaneously record EEG/fMRI. Recording simultaneous EEG/fMRI in the context of drug studies may help to resolve issues raised by previous studies. In this project we propose to record simultaneous EEG/fMRI in healthy volunteer participants while they are given two commonly used anaesthetic drugs, midazolam and ketamine. Our study aims to reconcile previous results in the literature and provide a template example for how future drug imaging studies (involving patients and new medications) might be conducted.