Central nodes of canine functional brain networks are concentrated in the cingulate gyrus

AbstractCompared to the field of human fMRI, knowledge about functional networks in dogs is scarce. In this paper, we present the first anatomically-defined ROI (region of interest) based functional network map of the companion dog brain. We scanned 33 awake dogs in a “task-free condition”. Our trained subjects, similarly to humans, remain willingly motionless during scanning. Our goal is to provide a reference map with a current best estimate for the organisation of the cerebral cortex as measured by functional connectivity. The findings extend a previous sp atial ICA (independent component analysis) study (Szabo et al. in Sci Rep 9(1):1.25.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51752-2,2019), with the current study including (1) more subjects and (2) improved scanning protocol to avoid asymmetric lateral distortions. In dogs, similarly to humans (Sacca et  al. in J Neurosci Methods.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneumeth.2021.109084,2021), ageing resulted in increasing framewise displacement (i.e. head motion) in the scanner. Despite the inherently different approaches between model-free ICA and model-based ROI, the resulting functional networks show a remarkable similarity. However, in the present study, we did not detect a designated auditory network. Instead, we identified two highly connected, lateralised multi-region networks extending to non-homotropic regions (Sylvian L, Sylvian R), including the respective auditory regions, together with the associative and sensorimoto...

Source: Anatomy and Embryology - March 30, 2023 Category: Anatomy Source Type: research