Imaging Experience-Dependent Changes in White Matter Microstructure in Rats

Jan Scholz¹, Cassandra Sampaio¹, Stephen Mchugh², David Bannerman², Alexandr Khrapichev³, Nicola Sibson³, Heidi Johansen-Berg¹

Structural brain plasticity in response to experience or learning can be found even in the adult mammal brain. Here we use diffusion MRI to determine the scope and location of white matter changes in rodents which learn the morris water maze task. Comparing MRI data to histology within the same animal will potentially yield a useful association between the two. This association can then be applied to human MRI data where histology or other information about neuro-cellular changes in unavailable.