Mapping brain-wide excitatory projectome of primate prefrontal cortex at submicron resolution and comparison with diffusion tractography.

Resolving trajectories of axonal pathways in the primate prefrontal cortex remains crucial to gain insights into higher-order processes of cognition and emotion, which requires a comprehensive map of axonal projections linking demarcated subdivisions of prefrontal cortex and the rest of brain. Here, we report a mesoscale excitatory projectome issued from the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) to the entire macaque brain by using viral-based genetic axonal tracing in tandem with high-throughput serial two-photon tomography, which demonstrated prominent monosynaptic projections to other prefrontal areas, temporal, limbic, and subcortical areas, relatively weak projections to parietal and insular regions but no projections directly to the occipital lobe. In a common 3D space, we quantitatively validated an atlas of diffusion tractography-derived vlPFC connections with correlative green fluorescent protein-labeled axonal tracing, and observed generally good agreement except a major difference in the posterior projections of inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus.

Normative Analysis of Individual Brain Differences Based on a Population MRI-Based Atlas of Cynomolgus Macaques.

The developmental trajectory of the primate brain varies substantially with aging across subjects. However, this ubiquitous variability between individuals in brain structure is difficult to quantify and has thus essentially been ignored. Based on a large-scale structural magnetic resonance imaging dataset acquired from 162 cynomolgus macaques, we create a species-specific 3D template atlas of the macaque brain, and deploy normative modeling to characterize individual variations of cortical thickness (CT) and regional gray matter volume (GMV).

Duplication Causes Aberrant GABA Pathways, Circuits and Behaviors in Transgenic Monkeys: Neural Mappings to Patients with Autism.

gain-of-function and loss-of-function in genetically engineered monkeys recapitulates typical phenotypes in patients with autism, yet where mutation affects the monkey brain and whether/how it relates to autism pathology remain unknown. Here we report a combination of gene-circuit-behavior analyses including coexpression network, locomotive and cognitive behaviors, and EEG and fMRI findings in 5 overexpressed monkeys (; 3 females) and 20 wild-type monkeys (; 11 females). Whole-genome expression analysis revealed coexpressed genes significantly enriched in GABA-related signaling pathways, whereby reduced β-synchronization within fronto-parieto-occipital networks was associated with abnormal locomotive behaviors.

Effects of early pubertal exposure to di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate on social behavior of mice.

Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), a main member of phthalates used as plasticizer in PVC plastics, is an environmental endocrine disrupter. The present study investigated the effect of DEHP on social behavior of mice following pubertal exposure (1, 10, 50, and 200mg/kg/d) from postnatal day 28 through postnatal day 42. The results showed that, in pubertal females, DEHP reduced the time spent in social play and social investigation and inhibited sociability, but a contrary effect was found in pubertal males, suggesting that the effect of DEHP on pubertal social behavior displays sex differences.