AI Article Synopsis

  • This study investigates how brain structure and connectivity differ between prairie voles from Illinois, which are highly prosocial, and first-generation males from Kansas, which exhibit lower prosocial behavior and higher aggression.
  • It was found that Illinois males have higher diffusion rates in brain areas linked to prosocial behavior, while Kansas males show increased diffusion in the brainstem.
  • The findings imply that variations in brain architecture and connectivity may influence social behaviors, making prairie voles a useful model for studying emotional and behavioral regulation.

Article Abstract

Background: We used the highly prosocial prairie vole to test the hypothesis that higher-order brain structure-microarchitecture and functional connectivity (FC)-would differ between males from populations with distinctly different levels of prosocial behavior. Specifically, we studied males from Illinois (IL), which display high levels of prosocial behavior, and first generation males from Kansas dams and IL males (KI), which display the lowest level of prosocial behavior and higher aggression. Behavioral differences between these males are associated with overexpression of estrogen receptor alpha in the medial amygdala and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and neuropeptide expression in the paraventricular nucleus.

Methods: We compared apparent diffusion coefficient, fractional anisotropy, and blood oxygen level-dependent resting-state FC between males.

Results: IL males displayed higher apparent diffusion coefficient in regions associated with prosocial behavior, including the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, paraventricular nucleus, and anterior thalamic nuclei, while KI males showed higher apparent diffusion coefficient in the brainstem. KI males showed significantly higher fractional anisotropy than IL males in 26 brain regions, with the majority being in the brainstem reticular activating system. IL males showed more blood oxygen level-dependent resting-state FC between the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, paraventricular nucleus, and medial amygdala along with other brain regions, including the hippocampus and areas associated with social and reward networks.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that gray matter microarchitecture and FC may play a role the expression of prosocial behavior and that differences in other brain regions, especially the brainstem, could be involved. The differences between males suggests that this system represents a potentially valuable model system for studying emotional differences and vulnerability to stress and addiction.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8075364PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2020.08.014DOI Listing

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