Fig. 5: Effect of prolonged maternal presence on the functional organisation of the equine brain (with mother > without mother).

Sagittal and axial brain slices showing changes in the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFFs) in the posterior (a) and anterior (b) regions between groups. The orange dashed lines represent the approximate positions of axial brain slices. The default mode network (DMN) is identified in the domestic horse by calculating the mean Pearson correlation coefficient between time series of spontaneous variations in blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals extracted from anatomically defined regions of interest (ROIs), which are functionally homologous to regions involved in the DMN in numerous species (aG, aCC/pFC and RSC) and in which spontaneous variations in the BOLD signal are highly correlated at rest between them. In (a, b), the orange dashed lines represent the approximate positions of axial brain slices. The data were obtained from SPM unpaired two-sample t test analysis using a voxel-level threshold p < 0.05, t threshold (dof = 21) = 3.4414, two-tailed, FDR corrected, and a voxel threshold = 15.000. For c, the data were obtained from SPM multiple regression analysis using a voxel-level threshold p < 0.001, t threshold (dof = 21) = 7.0544, two-tailed, FDR corrected, and a voxel threshold = 500. aG: angular gyrus, aCC: anterior cingulate cortex, amyg: amygdala, Cu/PrCu: cuneus/precuneus, PAG: periaqueductal grey, pFC: prefrontal cortex, RSC: retrosplenial cortex.