Many animal studies use the hypothesised mechanistic aspects of disease as a starting point, often only optimizing for establishment of single causes and treatments. However, for complex conditions such as MS and ASD, this approach disregards the spectrum of diversity that naturally occurs in animal models, and also ignores relevant human read-outs and multifaceted correlates of disorders.

In this project, the DC will use knowledge on brain features across scales of measurement in patients to extract relevant information from healthy rats, building a multiscale base of knowledge that will inform new, translational animal models and experiments for MS and ASD.

Specifically, we aim to test variations in cognitive behaviour in healthy rats, through set-shifting tasks that have high translational value, specifically for the impulsivity and loss of cognitive control often encountered in ASD and MS. Currently missing from patient literature is a multiscale understanding of the brain features that relate to these behavioural variations, since measuring across scales is impossible in patients.

Therefore, this DC will use immunohistochemistry, miniscopes and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to establish those patterns of cellular features, neural activity and whole-brain connectivity that have been associated with MS and ASD.

This project will be primarily hosted at AUMC in Amsterdam, and secondments are planned with Lara at the University of Bielefeld and the University of Porto with Patricia.

Read more about Linda’s research here: www.multinetlab.com