Behavioral state-dependent lateralization of dorsal dentate gyrus c-Fos expression in mice

Hemispheric lateralization is a fundamental organizing principle of nervous systems across taxonomic groups with bilateral symmetry. The mammalian hippocampus is lateralized anatomically, physiologically, and chemically; however, functional asymmetries are not yet well understood. Imaging studies in humans have implicated the left and right hippocampus in specialized processing. However, it is not clear if lateralized activity occurs in the rodent hippocampus. c-Fos imaging in animals provides a measure of neuronal activity with a resolution at the level of single cells. The aim of this study was to determine whether lateralized activity-dependent c-Fos expression occurs in the rodent hippocampus. To understand functional lateralization of hippocampal processing, we compared interhemispheric expression of c-Fos in the dentate gyrus (DG), a structure involved in encoding new experiences, in mice that ran on a wheel, encoded a novel object, or remained in home cages. We found that wheel running induced the greatest amount of DG c-Fos expression in both hemispheres, with no difference between hemispheres. Object exploration resulted in left-lateralized DG c-Fos expression, whereas control mice were not lateralized. We then sought to determine whether differential consideration of hemispheres might influence the conclusions of a study by simulating common cell quantification methods. We found that different approaches led to different conclusions. These data demonstrate lateralization of neuronal activity in the mouse DG corresponding to the experience of the animal and show that differentially considering hemisphere leads to alternative conclusions.