Monica Van den Berg, Belgium

University of Antwerp Bio-imaging lab
After finishing nursing school, I studied biomedical sciences (Neuroscience) at the University of Antwerp. During my thesis I investigated how chemogenetic activation of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons alters functional connectivity in the default mode network of rats. I've started my PhD in 2018 at the Bio-imaging lab (University of Antwerp). I am using preclinical resting state fMRI and chronic LFP measurements to unravel early synaptic alterations in a rat model for AD. My main research question is what neuronal mechanisms drive/modulate whole-brain network activity, how do synaptic alterations caused by AD interfere with these processes and can we detect this using noninvasive MRI.

Author Of 2 Presentations

SPATIOTEMPORAL ALTERATIONS OF RESTING-STATE QUASI-PERIODIC PATTERNS IN 4-MONTH OLD TGF344-AD RATS

Session Type
SYMPOSIUM
Date
11.03.2021, Thursday
Session Time
12:00 - 14:00
Room
On Demand Symposia E
Lecture Time
12:30 - 12:45
Session Icon
On-Demand

Abstract

Aims

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a severe neurodegenerative disorder that leads to brain network dysfunction and cognitive decline. Changes in functional networks at symptomatic stages of AD can be captured using resting state (RS) fMRI in patients and animal models. Here, we used a rat model manifesting the full-spectrum of human AD-pathology to identify if spatiotemporal network alterations are present at an early, pre-symptomatic stage.

Methods

RS fMRI data were collected from four-month-old TgF344-AD rats (N=15) and wildtype (WT) (N=11) littermates. Acquired images were realigned, normalized to a 3D- template, masked, smoothed, filtered and the global signal was regressed out. Recurrent patterns of brain activity (3.6 seconds long) were extracted using quasi-periodic pattern (QPP) analysis starting from 200 different seed patterns. Then, the 200 patterns of each group were clustered based on temporal and spatial similarity to identify the representative QPPs based on occurrence rates.

Results

Voxel-wise activations of matched QPPs across groups (Fig 1A)were compared using a two-sample t-test, FDR corrected for multiple comparisons. Significant QPP differences between groups were primarily found in the basal forebrain (BFB), and cingulate cortex (Cg) (Fig 1B). QPP time-course analysis in these regions-of-interest and somatosensory cortex (SS), demonstrated a concomitant reduction of BFB and an increase of Cg activity in the Tg-rats compared to the WT controls, while SS activity profiles remained unchanged (Fig 1C).adpd_final_text_mvdb.jpg

Conclusions

In summary, our results highlight the important role of the BFB in regulating whole-brain networks and indicate a potential signature to identify early onset changes at the network level.

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Presenter of 2 Presentations

SPATIOTEMPORAL ALTERATIONS OF RESTING-STATE QUASI-PERIODIC PATTERNS IN 4-MONTH OLD TGF344-AD RATS

Session Type
SYMPOSIUM
Date
11.03.2021, Thursday
Session Time
12:00 - 14:00
Room
On Demand Symposia E
Lecture Time
12:30 - 12:45
Session Icon
On-Demand

Abstract

Aims

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a severe neurodegenerative disorder that leads to brain network dysfunction and cognitive decline. Changes in functional networks at symptomatic stages of AD can be captured using resting state (RS) fMRI in patients and animal models. Here, we used a rat model manifesting the full-spectrum of human AD-pathology to identify if spatiotemporal network alterations are present at an early, pre-symptomatic stage.

Methods

RS fMRI data were collected from four-month-old TgF344-AD rats (N=15) and wildtype (WT) (N=11) littermates. Acquired images were realigned, normalized to a 3D- template, masked, smoothed, filtered and the global signal was regressed out. Recurrent patterns of brain activity (3.6 seconds long) were extracted using quasi-periodic pattern (QPP) analysis starting from 200 different seed patterns. Then, the 200 patterns of each group were clustered based on temporal and spatial similarity to identify the representative QPPs based on occurrence rates.

Results

Voxel-wise activations of matched QPPs across groups (Fig 1A)were compared using a two-sample t-test, FDR corrected for multiple comparisons. Significant QPP differences between groups were primarily found in the basal forebrain (BFB), and cingulate cortex (Cg) (Fig 1B). QPP time-course analysis in these regions-of-interest and somatosensory cortex (SS), demonstrated a concomitant reduction of BFB and an increase of Cg activity in the Tg-rats compared to the WT controls, while SS activity profiles remained unchanged (Fig 1C).adpd_final_text_mvdb.jpg

Conclusions

In summary, our results highlight the important role of the BFB in regulating whole-brain networks and indicate a potential signature to identify early onset changes at the network level.

Hide