Automated Discrimination of Brain Pathological State Attending to Complex Structural Brain Network Properties: The Shiverer Mutant Mouse Case
2011

Discrimination of Brain Pathological State in Shiverer Mutant Mice

Sample size: 12 publication 10 minutes Evidence: high

Author Information

Author(s): Iturria-Medina Yasser, Pérez Fernández Alejandro, Valdés Hernández Pedro, García Pentón Lorna, Canales-Rodríguez Erick J., Melie-Garcia Lester, Castellanos Agustin Lage, Ortega Marlis Ontivero

Primary Institution: Cuban Neuroscience Center

Hypothesis

Can brain structural network differences in the shiverer mouse mutant reflect intrinsic individual brain properties that allow automatic discrimination between shiverer and normal subjects?

Conclusion

The study found significant differences in brain network properties between shiverer and control mice, suggesting that complex brain network analyses can help classify brain disorders.

Supporting Evidence

  • Control group brain networks were more clustered and efficient than those of the shiverer group.
  • Significant increases in characteristic path length were observed in shiverer mice.
  • High accuracy classification (91.6–100%) was achieved in distinguishing between control and shiverer subjects.

Takeaway

Scientists studied mice to see if they could tell the difference between healthy and sick brains by looking at how the brain's connections are organized.

Methodology

The study used diffusion weighted MRI and graph theory to analyze brain networks in shiverer and control mice.

Potential Biases

Potential bias from the reliance on specific fiber tracking algorithms.

Limitations

The study focused on a specific mouse model and may not directly translate to human conditions.

Participant Demographics

Six shiverer mutant mice and six control mice were used in the study.

Statistical Information

P-Value

0.0025

Statistical Significance

p<0.05

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1371/journal.pone.0019071

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