Abstract
The ferret cerebellum is anteriorly right-lateralized and posteriorly left-lateralized. This study characterized the left/right difference in ferret cerebellar lobular morphology using 3D-rendered magnetic resonance images of fixed brains from seven male and seven female ferrets on postnatal day 90. Asymmetrical lobular morphology showed asymmetrical sublobular development in the anterior vermis, lobulus simplex, and ansiform lobules and additional grooves asymmetrically appearing in the paramedian lobule, lobule VI, and ansiform lobules. Although we observed these asymmetric hallmarks in four cerebellar transverse domains in both sexes, there was no left/right difference in their incidence in each domain. Males showed a significantly higher incidence of the additional grooves in the left side of the ansiform lobules than in females. Data were combined and classified as per the asymmetry quotient (AQ) into left- (AQ < 0) and right-dominant (AQ > 0) groups. There were significantly higher incidences of poor sublobular development of ansiform lobules and additional groove appearing in lobule VI on the right than on the left in the left-dominant group. Asymmetric hallmarks visible on the cerebellar surface of ferrets are relevant to the left-biased volume asymmetry of the central zone of cerebellar transversus domains containing lobule VI and ansiform lobules.
Highlights
Studies have reported cerebellar volume laterality in humans [1], nonhuman primates [2,3], and carnivores [4], including ferrets [5,6]
A preclinical 7.0 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system with a 400 mm inner-diameter-bore magnet (Kobelco and Jastec, Kobe, Japan) and an AVANCE-I console (Bruker BioSpin, Ettlingen, Germany) acquired 3D MR images covering the entire fixed brains using the rapid acquisition with relaxation enhancement (RARE) sequence with the following parameters: Repetition time (TR) = 300 ms; echo time (TE) = 9.6 ms; RARE factor = 4; field of view (FOV) = 32 × 32 × 40 mm3 ; acquisition matrix = 256 × 256 × 256; voxel size = 125 × 125 × 156 μm3 ; number of acquisitions (NEX) = 2; and total scan time = 2 h 43 min 50 s
The study, and all its procedures, The cerebellar morphological asymmetry was roughly classified into two types: Asymmetrical was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and
Summary
Studies have reported cerebellar volume laterality in humans [1], nonhuman primates [2,3], and carnivores [4], including ferrets [5,6]. The posterior cerebellum, including lobule VI and ansiform lobules, is functionally lateralized, that is, the right-side controls language and working memory [8,9], while the left side controls cognition [10,11]. Such functional asymmetry is involved in characteristic functional cerebellar organization via cerebrum–cerebellum connections linked contralaterally with the association cortex, not the motor cortex [9]. This study characterized the left/right difference in the cerebellar lobular morphology in male and female ferrets using 3D-rendered images obtained from ex vivo magnetic resonance (MR) images
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