Figure 1.

Brain engagement, through a cognitive task, remodels the hippocampal metabolome. A, Experimental paradigm for performing targeted metabolomic analysis following cognitive challenge. Male mice (age, 4 months; n = 14–16/experimental group) underwent a cognitive challenge (exploration of a small Y maze with spatial cues) or exploration of their home cage. The hippocampus was then immediately collected and flash frozen, and then underwent targeted metabolomic profiling. B, PCA plot of normalized counts of metabolites extracted from hippocampus show a clear separation between the hippocampi of mice with or without a cognitive challenge. C, Heatmap clustering analysis representing all the metabolites that were significantly different between mice with and without a cognitive challenge. Data were EIGEN normalized, log transformed, and autoscaled. D, Pathway analysis using IPA of the 84 metabolites that significantly differed included purine metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and citrulline metabolism among most significantly associated pathways PC, principle component.