Dissecting the strain and sex specific connectome signatures of unanesthetized C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice using MRI

Motivation: Mouse models have become an essential tool for understanding behavior and disease states in neuroscience research. However, genetic and sex-specific neurochemical and neuroanatomical features of mice raise questions of the impact of these known factors. Goal(s): To bridge this gap, we targeted C57BL/6J and DBA/2J, two of the most widely used inbred mouse strains, and investigated strain and sex-specific features of the brain connectome using MRI. Approach: We combined rsfMRI and diffusion-MRI to probe the mouse brain non-invasively. Results: We found that the sensori-motor, limbic, and salience networks show significant differences in both functional and structural domains between C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice. Impact: Understanding strain and sex-dependent signatures of the brain connectome is extremely important to consider when determining neural mechanisms that explain complex behavioral and disease states.