MARGINAL BRAIN FUNCTION DISRUPTION CAUSED BY RAT ANTERIOR CINGULATE CORTEX PERTURBATION
Open Access
- Author:
- Azarmi, Farzad
- Graduate Program:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- December 15, 2023
- Committee Members:
- Nanyin Zhang, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Daniel Hayes, Program Head/Chair
Sri-Rajasekhar Kothapalli, Committee Member
Thomas Neuberger, Committee Member - Keywords:
- fMRI
Rat
Muscimol
Seed-map
Anterior cingulate cortex - Abstract:
- Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is a revolutionary neuroimaging method that provides researchers with unprecedented access to data from the human and animal brains. This technique is non-invasive and enables for the observation of brain activity by detecting variations in cerebral blood flow and oxygenation levels. It also aids in the identification of particular brain areas that become active throughout diverse tasks or in resting-state, making it a useful tool for brain research. The cingulate cortex has been attributed to emotion as it represents a large percentage of the limbic lobe and is also regarded part of the limbic system. The frontal cingulate gyrus is involved in both emotional and motor activities, whereas the posterior region is primarily involved in visuospatial and memory abilities, with limited involvement in affective processes. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), in particular, is a diverse area of the brain that plays an important role in a variety of cognitive, emotional, and social functions, making it an important area in neuroscience research. The cingulate cortex can be inhibited by several compounds in experiments such as muscimol to discover the potential effects on the brain. Accordingly, muscimol belongs to the family of isoxazoles, and it has been taken from Amanita mushrooms. Muscimol functions as a strong GABA-A agonist that opens the GABA receptor, which is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. In this thesis, the functionality of the ACC in rats was perturbed through the administration of muscimol, followed by the acquisition of brain activity data using fMRI. Subsequently, seed-based connectivity mapping, Amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (ALFF), and rich club were applied using MATLAB software to discern disparities between the muscimol-treated and control groups. The outcomes revealed that when the ACC is subjected to disturbance, it engenders marginally widespread disruption in neural activity throughout the brain in addition to the local differences in the ACC area between the groups.