Abstract #1116

Distinct structure-function relationships at different hierarchical levels of structural connectivity in the rat brain.

Milou Straathof¹, Michel R T Sinke¹, Theresia J M Roelofs^1,2, Erwin L A Blezer¹, Oliver Schmitt³, Willem M Otte^1,4, and Rick M Dijkhuizen¹

¹Biomedical MR Imaging and Spectroscopy group, Center for Image Sciences, University Medical Center Utrecht and Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands, ²Department of Translational Neuroscience, Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands, ³Department of Anatomy, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany, ⁴Department of Pediatric Neurology, Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands

The relationship between functional and structural connectivity strength in the brain remains uncertain. We compared high-field resting-state fMRI, diffusion-based tractography and neuronal tracer data to robustly characterize the rat connectome. Our study revealed that strong structural connectivity is not required for strong functional connectivity. We found distinct structure-function relationships at different hierarchical levels in the rat brain: functional connectivity strength correlated moderately with diffusion-based structural connectivity strength, but did not significantly correlate with neuronal tracer-based structural connectivity strength. Hereby we demonstrate the importance of examining or appraising connectivity at different hierarchical levels for reliable assessment of neural network organization.

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