Summary of high field diffusion MRI and microscopy data demonstrate microstructural aberration in chronic mild stress rat brain

This data article describes a large, high resolution diffusion MRI data set from fixed rat brain acquired at high field strength. The rat brain samples consist of 21 adult rat brain hemispheres from animals exposed to chronic mild stress (anhedonic and resilient) and controls. Histology from amygdala of the same brain hemispheres is also included with three different stains: DiI and Hoechst stained microscopic images (confocal microscopy) and ALDH1L1 antibody based immunohistochemistry. These stains may be used to evaluate neurite density (DiI), nuclear density (Hoechst) and astrocytic density (ALDH1L1). This combination of high field diffusion data and high resolution images from microscopy enables comparison of microstructural parameters derived from diffusion MRI to histological microstructure. The data provided here is used in the article (Jespersen, 2016) [1].