Development of Brain Functional Networks in Rodents
Open Access
- Author:
- Ma, Zilu
- Graduate Program:
- Bioengineering
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- October 20, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Nanyin Zhang, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Nanyin Zhang, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Patrick James Drew, Committee Member
Yong Wang, Committee Member
Sonia Angele Cavigelli, Outside Member
Daniel J Hayes, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- Brain development
BOLD fMRI
Resting-state functional connectivity
Calcium fiber photometry - Abstract:
- The brain undergoes a protracted, metabolically expensive maturation process from childhood to adulthood, and this process is accompanied by complex neurophysiological changes and high occurrence rates of neuropsychiatric disorders. Despite substantial progress in elucidating the course of brain maturation, our knowledge in the development of whole-brain network architecture in animals is sparse. To fill this gap, we first investigated the changes in functional connectivity (FC) in neural circuitries during brain development using awake rodent resting state functional magnetic imaging (rsfMRI). The development of brain network exhibited hemispheric functional specialization, increase in long-range anterior-to-posterior connections in the default mode network, and reduced segregation but increased integration. In addition, to understand the network energy costs among different brain systems during brain maturation, we examined developmental changes in wiring cost and brain network topology. We found that the developmental increases in wiring cost and network integration were driven by long-range cortical, but not subcortical connections. To investigate the neural basis of functional networks, we further examined relationship between calcium-based neural activity and the fMRI signal. Robust region-specific couplings were found between the calcium and fMRI signals at both task and resting-state conditions. Furthermore, calcium-based neural spikes were found to drive large-scale anticorrelated brain networks. Taken together, studies in this dissertation systematically characterized the development of brain-wide connectivity architecture from the juvenile period to adulthood in awake rodents, documented a non-uniform distribution of network cost as the brain matures, and revealed the neural underpinning of rsfMRI-based brain networks.