Motivation: Visualization of pathological changes in tauopathy is expected to elucidate its detailed clinical symptoms. Goal(s): Our goal was to assess the pathological changes in a tauopathy mouse model by measuring brain function and structural networks. Approach: Wild-type and tauopathy mouse models (PS19) aged 3, 6, and 9 months were evaluated using awake functional MRI. After perfusion fixation, ex vivo brain were measured using diffusion MRI. Results: The PS19 mice exhibited decreased neuronal function in the amygdala, hippocampus, entorhinal and perirhinal cortices. Three -month-old PS19 mice showed a significant decrease in fiber orientation distribution in the entorhinal and perirhinal cortices. Impact: The establishment of tauopathy imaging using MRI could lead to the early and non-invasive detection of tau-related diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease.
Oshiro et al. (Tue,) studied this question.