Functional connectivity hubs of the mouse brain

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Systems Neuroscience
• Computational Neuroscience

Background:

• Functional connectivity methods identify brain hubs, crucial for integrating neuronal activity.
• Hub dysfunction is implicated in various neuropsychiatric disorders.
• Identifying mouse brain hubs can illuminate the biological basis of these disorders.

Purpose of the Study:

• To spatially map functional connectivity hubs in the mouse brain.
• To analyze whole-brain intrinsic functional connectivity at a high-resolution voxel-scale.
• To compare mouse brain hubs with those identified in human studies.

Main Methods:

• Applied fully-weighted network analysis to resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) data.
• Mapped the high-resolution voxel-scale functional connectome of the mouse brain.
• Identified distinct functional modules and hub regions.

Main Results:

• Discovered six distinct functional modules, including a default-mode network (DMN).
• Identified highly-connected functional hubs in DMN sub-regions (cingulate, prefrontal cortices), thalamus, insular, and temporal association cortices.
• Observed preferential interconnections among the identified hubs, consistent with their integrative roles.

Conclusions:

• Mouse brains exhibit evolutionarily-conserved, mutually-interconnected functional hubs.
• These findings provide a foundation for investigating the biological basis of aberrant hub connectivity in brain disorders.
• This study may guide future research into the neurobiological underpinnings of neuropsychiatric conditions.