Functional magnetic resonance imaging reveals similar brain activity changes in two different animal models of schizophrenia.
OBJECTIVE
In schizophrenia research, most of the functional imaging studies have been performed in psychotic patients, but little is known about brain areas involved in the expression of psychotic-like symptoms in animal models. The objective of this study was to visualize and compare brain activity abnormalities in a neurodevelopmental and a pharmacological animal model of schizophrenia.


METHODS
Blood perfusion of specific brain areas, taken as indirect measure of brain activity, was investigated in adult rats following either neonatal ventral hippocampal lesion or acute administration of phencyclidine. Quantitative perfusion magnetic resonance imaging was performed on five frontal brain slices using the continuous arterial spin labeling technique. The mean perfusion was calculated in several brain structures, which were identified on anatomical images.


RESULTS
Lesioned animals exhibiting deficits in prepulse inhibition of the startle reflex showed a significant blood perfusion increase in the nucleus accumbens, basolateral amygdala, ventral pallidum, entorhinal-piriform cortex, orbital prefrontal cortex, and in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and a decrease of perfusion in the temporal cortex. Similar effects were seen following acute phencyclidine administration in naïve animals.


CONCLUSIONS
Our data point out specific cortical and subcortical brain areas involved in the development of psychotic-like symptoms in two different animal models of schizophrenia. The observed brain activity abnormalities are reminiscent of classical neuroimaging findings described in schizophrenic patients.
Risterucci
Céline
C
CNS Research, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., PRBD-N, Bldg 72/129, 4070, Basel, Switzerland. celine.risterucci@roche.com
Jeanneau
Karine
K
Schöppenthau
Stephanie
S
Bielser
Thomas
T
Künnecke
Basil
B
von Kienlin
Markus
M
Moreau
Jean-Luc
JL
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000503:physiopathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010622:Phencyclidine; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000502:physiology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology
D010622:Phencyclidine; D010100:Oxygen
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