Data from: Use of anisotropy, 3D segmented atlas, and computational analysis to identify gray matter subcortical lesions common to concussive injury from different sites on the cortex

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can occur anywhere along the cortical mantel.
While the cortical contusions may be random and disparate in their
locations, the clinical outcomes are often similar and difficult to
explain. Thus a question that arises is, do concussions at different sites
on the cortex affect similar subcortical brain regions? To address this
question we used a fluid percussion model to concuss the right caudal or
rostral cortices in rats. Five days later, diffusion tensor MRI data were
acquired for indices of anisotropy (IA) for use in a novel method of
analysis to detect changes in gray matter microarchitecture. IA values
from over 20,000 voxels were registered into a 3D segmented, annotated rat
atlas covering 150 brain areas. Comparisons between left and right
hemispheres revealed a small population of subcortical sites with altered
IA values. Rostral and caudal concussions were of striking similarity in
the impacted subcortical locations, particularly the central nucleus of
the amygdala, laterodorsal thalamus, and hippocampal complex. Subsequent
immunohistochemical analysis of these sites showed significant
neuroinflammation. This study presents three significant findings that
advance our understanding and evaluation of TBI: 1) the introduction of a
new method to identify highly localized disturbances in discrete gray
matter, subcortical brain nuclei without postmortem histology, 2) the use
of this method to demonstrate that separate injuries to the rostral and
caudal cortex produce the same subcortical, disturbances, and 3) the
central nucleus of the amygdala, critical in the regulation of emotion, is
vulnerable to concussion.