diffusion mri of structural brain plasticity induced by a learning and memory task扩散磁共振成像结构引起的大脑可塑性的一个学习和记忆的任务.pdfVIP

Diffusion MRI of Structural Brain Plasticity Induced by a Learning and Memory Task 1 2 1 1 Tamar Blumenfeld-Katzir , Ofer Pasternak , Michael Dagan , Yaniv Assaf * 1 Department of Neurobiology, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2 Laboratory of Mathematics in Imaging, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America Abstract Background: Activity-induced structural remodeling of dendritic spines and glial cells was recently proposed as an important factor in neuroplasticity and suggested to accompany the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP). Although T1 and diffusion MRI have been used to study structural changes resulting from long-term training, the cellular basis of the findings obtained and their relationship to neuroplasticity are poorly understood. Methodology/Principal Finding: Here we used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to examine the microstructural manifestations of neuroplasticity in rats that performed a spatial navigation task. We found that DTI can be used to define the selective localization of neuroplasticity induced by different tasks and that this process is age-dependent in cingulate cortex and corpus callosum and age-independent in the dentate gyrus. Conclusion/Significance: We relate the observed DTI changes to the structural plasticity that occurs in astrocytes and discuss the potential of MRI for probing structural neuroplasticity and hence indirectly localizing LTP. Citation: Blumenfeld-Katzir T, Pasternak O, Dagan M, Assaf Y (2011) Diffusion MRI of Structural Brain Plasticity Induced b