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Abstract
Genetic divergences among mammalian strains are presented phenotypically in various aspects of physical appearance such as body shape and facial features. Yet how genetic diversity is expressed in brain function still remains unclear. Functional connectivity has been shown to be a valuable approach in characterizing the relationship between brain functions and behaviors. Alterations in the brain default mode network (DMN) have been found in human neuropsychological disorders. In this study we selected the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) and the Wistar Kyoto rat (WKY), two inbred rat strains with close genetic origins, to investigate variations in the DMN. Our results showed that the major DMN differences are the activities in hippocampal area and caudate putamen region. This may be correlated to the hyperactive behavior of the SHR strain. Advanced animal model studies on variations in the DMN may have potential to shed new light on translational medicine, especially with regard to neuropsychological disorders.
Highlights
These two inbred strains have enormously similar genes, the expressions on cardiovascular and neuropsychological functions are quite different
Major differences between the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) and Wistar Kyoto rat (WKY) rats were found with regard to two regions: the caudate putamen region and the hippocampus area
The caudate putamen was not found to be part of the default mode network (DMN) of rats in a previous study[11], we found a positive correlation between retrosplenial cortex (RSC) seed and the caudate putamen in the SHR group
Summary
These two inbred strains have enormously similar genes, the expressions on cardiovascular and neuropsychological functions are quite different. Our question is: Is it possible to find the inherent variances in brain activities and organizations on these two rat strains? Investigations of these genetically similar strains could be somewhat analogous to the ongoing Human Connectome Project that focuses on twins and their non-twin siblings. Homozygous rats of an inbred strain are like twins, while the two strains with similar genetic origins, SHR and WKY, are comparable to non-twin siblings. We set out to investigate the DMN of SHR and WKY rats. DMN and functional connectivity networks were analyzed through resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) scans using seed-based correlation analysis
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