Association between sociability and diffusion tensor imaging in BALB/cJ mice.

Publication Type	Academic Article
Authors	Kim S, Pickup S, Fairless A, Ittyerah R, Dow H, Abel T, Brodkin E, Poptani H
Journal	NMR Biomed
Volume	25
Issue	1
Pagination	104-12
Date Published	05/25/2011
ISSN	1099-1492
Keywords	Behavior, Animal, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Social Behavior
Abstract	The purpose of this study was to use high-resolution diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to investigate the association between DTI metrics and sociability in BALB/c inbred mice. The sociability of prepubescent (30-day-old) BALB/cJ mice was operationally defined as the time that the mice spent sniffing a stimulus mouse in a social choice test. High-resolution ex vivo DTI data on 12 BALB/cJ mouse brains were acquired using a 9.4-T vertical-bore magnet. Regression analysis was conducted to investigate the association between DTI metrics and sociability. Significant positive regression (p < 0.001) between social sniffing time and fractional anisotropy was found in 10 regions located in the thalamic nuclei, zona incerta/substantia nigra, visual/orbital/somatosensory cortices and entorhinal cortex. In addition, significant negative regression (p < 0.001) between social sniffing time and mean diffusivity was found in five areas located in the sensory cortex, motor cortex, external capsule and amygdaloid region. In all regions showing significant regression with either the mean diffusivity or fractional anisotropy, the tertiary eigenvalue correlated negatively with the social sniffing time. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using DTI to detect brain regions associated with sociability in a mouse model system.
DOI	10.1002/nbm.1722
PubMed ID	21618305
PubMed Central ID	PMC4188421