Neurobehavioral impairments predict specific cerebral damage in rat model of subarachnoid hemorrhage

Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a severe form of stroke that can cause unpredictable and diffuse cerebral damage, which is difficult to detect until it becomes irreversible. Therefore, there is a need for a reliable method to identify dysfunctional regions and initiate treatment before permanent damage occurs. Neurobehavioral assessments have been suggested as a possible tool to detect and approximately localize dysfunctional cerebral regions. In this study, we hypothesized that a neurobehavioral assessment battery could be a sensitive and specific early warning for damage in discrete cerebral regions following SAH. To test this hypothesis, a behavioral battery was employed at multiple time points after SAH induced via an endovascular perforation, and brain damage was confirmed via postmortem histopathological analysis. Our results demonstrate that impairment of sensorimotor function accurately predict damage in the cerebral cortex (AUC: 0.905; sensitivity: 81.8%; specificity: 90.9%) and striatum (AUC: 0.913; sensitivity: 90.1%; specificity: 100%), while impaired novel object recognition is a more accurate indicator of damage to the hippocampus (AUC: 0.902; sensitivity: 74.1%; specificity: 83.3%) than impaired reference memory (AUC: 0.746; sensitivity: 72.2%; specificity: 58.0%). Tests for anxiety-like and depression-like behaviors predict damage to the amygdala (AUC: 0.900; sensitivity: 77.0%; specificity: 81.7%) and thalamus (AUC: 0.963; sensitivity: 86.3%; specificity: 87.8%), respectively. This study suggests that recurring behavioral testing can accurately predict damage in specific brain regions, which could be developed into a clinical battery for early detection of SAH damage in humans, potentially improving early treatment and outcomes.