Dataset Information

Resting-state functional connectivity in the rat cervical spinal cord at 9.4 T.

ABSTRACT: PURPOSE:Numerous studies have adopted resting-state functional MRI methods to infer functional connectivity between cortical regions, but very few have translated them to the spinal cord, despite its critical role in the central nervous system. Resting-state functional connectivity between gray matter horns of the spinal cord has previously been shown to be detectable in humans and nonhuman primates, but it has not been reported previously in rodents. METHODS:Resting-state functional MRI of the cervical spinal cord of live anesthetized rats was performed at 9.4?T. The quality of the functional images acquired was assessed, and quantitative analyses of functional connectivity in C4-C7 of the spinal cord were derived. RESULTS:Robust gray matter horn-to-horn connectivity patterns were found that were statistically significant when compared with adjacent control regions. Specifically, dorsal-dorsal and ventral-ventral connectivity measurements were most prominent, while ipsilateral dorsal-ventral connectivity was also observed but to a lesser extent. Quantitative evaluation of reproducibility also revealed moderate robustness in the bilateral sensory and motor networks that was weaker in the dorsal-ventral connections. CONCLUSIONS:This study reports the first evidence of resting-state functional circuits within gray matter in the rat spinal cord, and verifies their detectability using resting-state functional MRI at 9.4?T. Magn Reson Med 79:2773-2783, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

SUBMITTER: Wu TL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5821555 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Resting-state functional connectivity in the rat cervical spinal cord at 9.4 T.

Wu Tung-Lin TL Wang Feng F Mishra Arabinda A Wilson George H GH Byun Nellie N Chen Li Min LM Gore John C JC

Magnetic resonance in medicine 20170914 5

<h4>Purpose</h4>Numerous studies have adopted resting-state functional MRI methods to infer functional connectivity between cortical regions, but very few have translated them to the spinal cord, despite its critical role in the central nervous system. Resting-state functional connectivity between gray matter horns of the spinal cord has previously been shown to be detectable in humans and nonhuman primates, but it has not been reported previously in rodents.<h4>Methods</h4>Resting-state functio ...[more]

PMID: 28905408

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Project description:The investigation of spontaneous fluctuations of the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal has recently been extended from the brain to the spinal cord, where it has stimulated interest from a clinical perspective. A number of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have demonstrated robust functional connectivity between the time series of BOLD fluctuations in bilateral dorsal horns and between those in bilateral ventral horns, in line with the functional neuroanatomy of the spinal cord. A necessary step prior to extension to clinical studies is assessing the reliability of such resting-state signals, which we aimed to do here in a group of 45 healthy young adults at the clinically prevalent field strength of 3T. When investigating connectivity in the entire cervical spinal cord, we observed fair to good reliability for dorsal-dorsal and ventral-ventral connectivity, whereas reliability was poor for within- and between-hemicord dorsal-ventral connectivity. Considering how prone spinal cord fMRI is to noise, we extensively investigated the impact of distinct noise sources and made two crucial observations: removal of physiological noise led to a reduction in functional connectivity strength and reliability - due to the removal of stable and participant-specific noise patterns - whereas removal of thermal noise considerably increased the detectability of functional connectivity without a clear influence on reliability. Finally, we also assessed connectivity within spinal cord segments and observed that while the pattern of connectivity was similar to that of whole cervical cord, reliability at the level of single segments was consistently poor. Taken together, our results demonstrate the presence of reliable resting-state functional connectivity in the human spinal cord even after thoroughly accounting for physiological and thermal noise, but at the same time urge caution if focal changes in connectivity (e.g. due to segmental lesions) are to be studied, especially in a longitudinal manner.

Dataset Information

Resting-state functional connectivity in the rat cervical spinal cord at 9.4 T.

Publications

Resting-state functional connectivity in the rat cervical spinal cord at 9.4 T.

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