Dissection of white matter association fasciculi in bovine (Bos taurus), pig (Sus scrofa domesticus) and rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) brains

The cerebral fasciculi (association, commissural and projection) pass through the cerebral white matter in organized groups connecting regions, hemispheres, gyri, areas and brain lobes to each other. The study can be done in vivo through diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) but presenting some technical problems. The post-mortem study by dissection allows to have a clearer view of its location, path and connections. In this work, we dissect, identify and compare the fasciculi of association of the white matter of the dorsolateral face of bovine hemispheres (Bos taurus), pig hemispheres (Sus scrofa domesticus) and rabbit hemispheres (Oryctolagus cuniculus), applying the Klingler´s technique. In 30 cerebral hemispheres (10 of each species, five right and five left), we applied the Klingler technique to identify and isolate the occipitofrontal fasciculus, uncinate fasciculus, inferior longitudinal fasciculus and superior longitudinal fasciculus; we established its location by fixing landmarks, and determined the difference in its length and width between the right and left hemispheres as well as between species using the statistical tests of t-student and one-way ANOVA. We identify the gyri, sulci and fasciculi of the dorsolateral surface of the cerebral hemispheres of the three species. We found statistically significant differences in several fasciculi between species principally in the occipitofrontal fasciculus. The preparation of the brains through the modified Klingler technique allowed a successful identification of the fascicules of association of the dorsolateral face of the cerebral hemispheres and the empowerment of these animal models for future research work in this field.