Affiliations: [a] VISN 17 Center of Excellence for Research on Returning War Veterans, Waco, TX, USA | [b] Department of Psychiatry, Texas A & M Health Sciences and Scott & White Healthcare, Temple, TX, USA | [c] Department of Neurology, The University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA | [d] Lynn S. Florsheim MRIS Laboratory, Department of Radiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA | [e] Anatomy and Cell Biology, College of Medicine, The University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Correspondence:
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Correspondence to: Deborah M. Little, PhD (for correspondence regarding the imaging and image analysis), Neuroimaging and Genetics Core Leader, VISN 17 Center of Excellence for Research on Returning War Veterans and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Texas A&M Health Sciences and Scott & White Healthcare, TX, USA. Tel.: +1 254 297 3000 x55601; Fax: +1 254 297 3562; E-mail: deborahmlittle@gmail.com and Orly Lazarov, PhD (for correspondence regarding enrichment), Associate Prof., Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. Tel.: +1 312 355 0548; E-mail: olazarov@uic.edu.
Abstract: We have shown that experience of transgenic mice harboring familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD)-linked AβPPswe/PS1ΔE9 in an enriched environment enhances hippocampal neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity and attenuates neuropathology. Nevertheless, the neuronal pathways activated following environmental enrichment underlying this effect are unknown. Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, we present preliminary evidence to show that transgenic mice, which had been housed in an enriched environment, show increased connectivity between CA1 and cortical areas compared to mice from standard housing. This is the first preliminary demonstration of live-activated neuronal pathways following environmental enrichment in FAD mice. Understanding the activated pathways may unravel the molecular mechanism underlying environmental enrichment-enhanced neuroplasticity in FAD.
