Abstract
AbstractPrenatal stress (PS) can impact fetal brain structure and function and contribute to higher vulnerability to neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. To understand how PS alters evoked and spontaneous neocortical activity and intrinsic brain functional connectivity, mesoscale voltage imaging was performed in adult C57BL/6NJ mice that had been exposed to auditory stress on gestational days 12-16, the age at which neocortex is developing. PS mice had a four-fold higher basal corticosterone level and reduced amplitude of cortical sensory-evoked responses to visual, auditory, whisker, forelimb, and hindlimb stimuli. Relative to control animals, PS also led to a general reduction of resting-state functional connectivity, as well as reduced inter-modular connectivity, enhanced intra-modular connectivity, and altered frequency of auditory and forelimb spontaneous sensory motifs. These resting-state changes resulted in a cortical connectivity pattern featuring disjoint but tight modules and a decline in network efficiency. The findings demonstrate that cortical connectivity is sensitive to PS and exposed offspring may be at risk for adult stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders.
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Reference120 articles.
1. Prenatal stress and genetic risk: How prenatal stress interacts with genetics to alter risk for psychiatric illness
2. Afrashteh, N. , Inayat, S. , Bermudez Contreras, E. , Luczak, A. , McNaughton, B. , Mohajerani, M. , Spatiotemporal structure of sensory-evoked and spontaneous activity revealed by mesoscale imaging in anesthetized and awake mice. BioRxiv.
3. Effects of Long-Term Endogenous Corticosteroid Exposure on Brain Volume and Glial Cells in the AdKO Mouse;Frontiers in neuroscience,2021
4. Cellular Mechanisms Contributing to Response Variability of Cortical NeuronsIn Vivo
5. Early Life Programming and Neurodevelopmental Disorders