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Leveraging large-scale brain networks in rats to understand neurological and psychiatric disorders in humans

Neuropsychopharmacology (2024)Cite this article

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The brain is organized into spatially distributed and functionally specific networks. The default-mode network (DMN) and salience network (SN) in humans have been shown to support a variety of cognitive and affective functions and have been implicated in multiple neurological and psychiatric disorders [1, 2]. As rodents are widely used as preclinical models of human diseases, identification of their brain networks analogous to those of humans would enhance mechanistic, causative understanding of their functions in health and disease.

More recently, we identified a SN in rats, using functional MRI and neural tracing data [6]. The anatomical profile of the identified rat SN is analogous to that of nonhuman primates and humans, including primarily the anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex (Fig. 1B). Leveraging the rat SN, we assessed the response of this network to conditioned cues in rats with a history of heroin self-administration. Our data demonstrated that the rat SN responds to conditioned cues and increases functional connectivity to the DMN during conditioned heroin withdrawal [6].

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Fig. 1: The default mode network and salience network across species.

References

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Funding

YY and HL are supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institutes of Health.

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  1. Neuroimaging Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Intramural Research Programs, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, 21224, USA

    Hanbing Lu & Yihong Yang

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  1. Hanbing Lu
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  2. Yihong Yang
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YY and HL wrote the paper and prepared the figure.

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Correspondence to Hanbing Lu or Yihong Yang.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Lu, H., Yang, Y. Leveraging large-scale brain networks in rats to understand neurological and psychiatric disorders in humans. Neuropsychopharmacol. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-024-01952-w

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