Fig. 2: WT and AD follow distinct trajectories of age-related changes in functional brain organization. | Molecular Psychiatry

Fig. 2: WT and AD follow distinct trajectories of age-related changes in functional brain organization.

From: Aging-dependent loss of functional connectivity in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease and reversal by mGluR5 modulator

Fig. 2

Two-sample t-tests are applied to uncover age-related changes in FC within WT and AD mice. In both groups, the earliest timepoint (4 M) is used as a baseline for all subsequent imaging sessions. Four stages of ‘aging’ are captured: early (6 M vs. 4 M), mid (9 M vs. 4 M), late (20 M vs. 4 M) and very late (22 M vs. 4 M). For connectomes, t-test results are displayed without (bottom-half), and with (top-half) statistical threshold (corrected, p <0.05), for WT (top row) and AD (bottom row). All other displays, vertical histograms of node degree (WT, top row; AD, bottom row), circle plots and node degree maps (WT, left panels in each pair; AD, right panels in each pair), are shown after the statistical thresholds. For the brain region labels (rainbow) color-scale, see Fig. 1a. Positive t-values (red) indicate greater FC strength in older vs. younger mice. Negative values (blue) indicate the opposite. Node degree maps are displayed on anatomical reference images (greyscale). Clear and distinct aging effects are observed in both groups. The WT group shows an overall increase in FC strength in older vs. younger mice which emerges at 9 M, persists at 20 M, and shows some evidence of waning at 22 M. Conversely, the AD group shows an overall decrease in FC strength in older vs. younger mice which emerges at 20 M and persists until 22 M. As a data reduction strategy, we summarize these data at the indicated timepoints for each group (Fig. 3, Supplementary Fig. 3). MB midbrain, VIS visual, MO motor, AUD auditory, SS somatosensory, ACA anterior cingulate, RSP retrosplenial, TH thalamus, HY hypothalamus, CBX cerebellum, PERI perirhinal, ENT entorhinal, PIR piriform, CP caudoputamen, ACB nucleus accumbens, AI agranular insula. Triple network color-coding: default-mode network (DMN) in green, salience network (SN) in pink, lateral-cortical network (LCN) in orange; regions in common across all three networks (light blue), regions shared by DMN and LCN (light purple) are also shown.

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