Molecular mechanisms for changing brain connectivity in mice and humans (blood samples)

The goal of this study was to examine commonalities in the molecular basis of learning in mice and humans. In our previous work on mouse learning we suppressed activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and hippocampus (HC) and found the stages for which each area was critical in performing a 2-choice visuospatial discrimination task. Our current study began by examining gene expression changes in mouse ACC and HC as a result of learning a new skill. Genes upregulated in both brain areas were used as candidates to examine commonalities between genes upregulated in mouse and human blood. We used microarrays to identify candidate genes and real-time PCR to compare the mouse results with two forms of human learning. One form involved training in a working memory task (network training), the other a generalized training shown to change many networks (meditation). We identified two genes that were upregulated in both mice and humans following training. We believe these genes act to regulate pathways that influence NF-κB, a factor previously found to be related to enhanced synaptic function and learning. The experiment consists of 12 Mouse Gene 2.0 ST arrays, profiling pooled RNA samples obtained from blood obtained from untrained and trained animals both pre- and post-training-period.