Citation

Nolan A, Hennessy E, Krukowski K, Guglielmetti C, Chaumeil M, Sohal VS, Rosi S. J. Neurotrauma 2018; 35(20): 2425-2434.

Affiliation

University of California San Francisco, Weill Institute for Neuroscience, San Francisco, California, United States ; susanna.rosi@ucsf.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/neu.2018.5731

PMID

29732949

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has long been identified as a precipitating risk factor for higher order cognitive deficits associated with the frontal and prefrontal cortices (PFC). In addition, mild repetitive TBI (rTBI), in particular, is being steadily recognized to increase the risk of neurodegenerative disease. Thus, further understanding of how mild rTBI changes the pathophysiology of the brain to lead to cognitive impairment is warranted. The current models of rTBI lack knowledge regarding chronic higher order cognitive functions and the underlying neuronal physiology, especially functions involving the PFC. Here, we establish that five repeated mild hits, allowing rotational acceleration of the head, lead to chronic deficits in PFC-dependent functions such as social behavior, spatial working memory and environmental response with concomitant microgliosis and a small decrease in the adaptation rate of layer V pyramidal neurons in the medial PFC (mPFC). However, structural damage is not seen on in vivo T2-weighted MR imaging; and extensive intrinsic excitability changes in layer V pyramidal neurons of the mPFC are not observed. Thus, this rTBI animal model can recapitulate chronic higher order cognitive impairments without structural damage on MR imaging as observed in humans.

Language: en

Keywords

COGNITIVE FUNCTION; ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY; MRI; TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY