This chapter discusses the technology and methods for performing imaging studies on awake dams during pup suckling. This unique experimental model allowed addressing three questions: Does pup suckling activate reward circuitry? Where is the cortical representation of nipple stimulation? What role does oxytocin (OT) play in suckling-induced brain activation? Technology and methods for imaging changes in brain activity in fully conscious rat dams in response to the onset of pup suckling involves a multiconcentric dual-coil, and small animal restrainer (insight neuroimaging systems), the basic configuration used for rat MR imaging. The BOLD fMRI signal is detected through the manipulation of precessing protons in the various brain tissue compartments when a subject is placed within an external magnetic field (B0 field provided by the MR scanner). Two radiofrequency coils, one for transmission and one for reception, facilitate the manipulation and detection of changes in proton resonant frequency, as an indirect measurement of the fMRI signal in vivo. Again, fMRI in conscious dams is ideally suited for providing an insight into this question of cortical representation of nipple stimulation during lactation. To address this issue, there is an imaging study using four stimulation conditions. In one condition, lactating dams were exposed to their pups for a 5-min stimulation period. In the second condition, a separate group of lactating dams were artificially suckled in the absence of pups. In the third condition, a separate group of lactating dams were exposed to gentle rubbing of the ventrum around the nipples with a flat edged wooden ruler. In the fourth condition, virgin females were exposed to this rubbing stimulus.