Mapping the neuroanatomical abnormalities in a phenotype of male compulsive rats

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  • Elena Martín-González
  • Ángeles Prados-Pardo
  • Stephen J. Sawiak
  • Jeffrey W. Dalley
  • Daniel Padro
  • Pedro Ramos-Cabrer
  • Mora Parada, Santiago
  • Margarita Moreno-Montoya

Compulsivity is considered a transdiagnostic dimension in obsessive–compulsive and related disorders, characterized by heterogeneous cognitive and behavioral phenotypes associated with abnormalities in cortico-striatal-thalamic-cortical circuitry. The present study investigated the structural morphology of white and gray matter in rats selected for low- (LD) and high- (HD) compulsive drinking behavior on a schedule-induced polydipsia (SIP) task. Regional brain morphology was assessed using ex-vivo high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Voxel-based morphometry of segmented MRI images revealed larger white matter volumes in anterior commissure and corpus callosum of HD rats compared with LD rats. HD rats also showed significantly larger regional volumes of dorsolateral orbitofrontal cortex, striatum, amygdala, hippocampus, midbrain, sub-thalamic nucleus, and cerebellum. By contrast, the medial prefrontal cortex was significantly smaller in HD rats compared with LD rats with no significant group differences in whole brain, ventricular, or cerebrospinal fluid volumes. These findings show that limbic cortico-basal ganglia structures implicated in impulse control disorders are distinct in rats that are vulnerable to develop compulsive behavior. Such abnormalities may be relevant to the etiology of compulsive disorders in humans.

Original languageEnglish
Article number19
JournalBehavioral and Brain Functions
Volume19
Issue number1
Number of pages15
ISSN1744-9081
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).

    Research areas

  • Compulsive behavior, Cortico-striatal-thalamic-cortical circuit, Magnetic resonance imaging, Schedule-Induced Polydipsia, Voxel-based morphometry, White matter

ID: 373465978