Correlation of Cerebral Cortical Morphology with Behavior

Abstract

Association between functional damage and damage to the central nervous system from toxic agents can be used to determine the value of behavioral tests as predictors of damage to the nervous system. Variability in data from behavioral tests may be caused, in part, by varying levels of structural differences in the nervous system. Stepwise multiple regression is one method for analyzing the relationship between variability in data resulting from linkage between functional and morphological or other parameters of the structure of the nervous system. As an example, the predictive value of four behavioral tests is assessed in detecting thinning of the cerebral cortex following gestational exposure of rats to ionizing radiation. In this analysis, there were seven independent variables for predicting cortical thickness. The sequence of number of times each variable was used in prediction, from most frequent to least frequent, was: angle of stride > negative geotaxis > continuous corridor> body weight > width of stride > length of stride > reflex suspension. The data support the concept that there are varying degrees of predictive associations between these functional and cortical parameters.