201
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Schaller-Paule MA, Oeckel AM, Schüre JR, Keil F, Hattingen E, Foerch C, Rauch M. Isolated thalamic stroke - analysis of clinical characteristics and asymmetry of lesion distribution in a retrospective cohort study. Neurol Res Pract 2021; 3:49. [PMID: 34511109 PMCID: PMC8436465 DOI: 10.1186/s42466-021-00148-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2021] [Accepted: 08/02/2021] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Background More patients with left-hemispheric than right-hemispheric strokes are admitted to hospitals. This is due to the easier recognition of cortical symptoms of the dominant-hemisphere. The thalamus constitutes a “micro-model” of the brain cortex with structure-function relationships known to be asymmetric, especially for language, memory, and visuo-spatial neurocognitive functions. The goal of this study was to characterize clinical symptoms and lesion distribution patterns of patients with acute isolated thalamic stroke (ITS) and to evaluate whether left-sided lesions are overrepresented in the hospital. Methods We performed a radiological database search including all brain scans performed in the Center of Neurology and Neurosurgery of the University Hospital Frankfurt between 2010 and 2019. A total of 5733 patients presenting with acute ischemic stroke were screened for ITS. Based on the MRI data, a lesion-overlap map was then generated to visualize the ITS lesion distribution. Results Fifty-eight patients with unilateral ITS were identified. A majority of 38 patients (65.5%) showed left-sided ITS, whereas only 20 patients (34.5%) had right-sided ITS (p = 0.012). A particular difference was found for ITS lesions in the anterior thalamus of the anterolateral (n = 10) and anteromedian (n = 3) vascular territory, which were located in the left thalamus in 85% of patients (p = 0.011). No distribution difference was found for ITS lesions in the inferomedial (n = 7), central (n = 8), inferolateral (n = 23) and posterior (n = 7) vascular territories. The neuropsychological symptoms of thalamic aphasia (n = 8), neurocognitive impairment (n = 6), behavioral changes (n = 2), neglect (n = 2) and memory deficits (n = 3) were described predominantly in patients with left-sided ITS (p < 0.01). In contrast, other stroke symptoms (e.g., sensorimotor hemi-syndromes) did not reveal a side preponderance. Conclusions The better recognizability of left anterior compared to right anterior thalamic stroke symptoms may have an impact on the frequency in which ITS patients are admitted to the hospital. Clinical characteristics of right anterior thalamic stroke should therefore be further investigated, and diagnostic instruments towards their detection be identified.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin A Schaller-Paule
- Department of Neurology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe-University, Schleusenweg 2 - 16, D-60528, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
| | - Ariane Martinez Oeckel
- Department of Neurology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe-University, Schleusenweg 2 - 16, D-60528, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Jan-Rüdiger Schüre
- Brain Imaging Center, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.,Institute of Neuroradiology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Fee Keil
- Institute of Neuroradiology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Elke Hattingen
- Institute of Neuroradiology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Christian Foerch
- Department of Neurology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe-University, Schleusenweg 2 - 16, D-60528, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Maximilian Rauch
- Institute of Neuroradiology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
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202
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Cao S, Zhang J, Chen C, Wang X, Ji Y, Nie J, Tian Y, Qiu B, Wei Q, Wang K. Decline in executive function in patients with white matter hyperintensities from the static and dynamic perspectives of amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations. J Neurosci Res 2021; 99:2793-2803. [PMID: 34510531 DOI: 10.1002/jnr.24956] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2021] [Revised: 07/29/2021] [Accepted: 08/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Cognitive impairments are characteristics of patients with white matter hyperintensities (WMHs), and hypoperfusion is currently a relatively recognized mechanism of WMHs. Brain activity is closely coupled to the regulation of local blood flow. This study aimed to investigate the abnormal local brain activity of patients with WMHs from the viewpoint of the static amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (sALFF) and dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (dALFF). Seventy-four patients with WMHs and 35 healthy controls (HCs) were included. Based on the Fazekas scale, patients with WMHs were further divided into a mild WMH group (n = 33, Fazekas score 1-2) and moderate-severe WMH group (n = 41, Fazekas score 3-6). The sALFF and dALFF values were calculated separately and neuropsychological tests including the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT), Trail Making Test (TMT), and Boston Naming Test (BNT) were completed by all participants. Patients with WMHs showed increased sALFF and dALFF values in the bilateral thalamus and decreased performance in the MoCA test, AVLT-immediate, AVLT-delay, AVLT-recognition, TMT-A, and BNT. The dALFF values in the bilateral thalamus was correlated with the MoCA in HCs. The sALFF values in the bilateral thalamus correlated with TMT-B in patients with WMHs. Patients with WMHs showed abnormal brain activity and decreased functional stability of the bilateral thalamus, which may be a potential mechanism of decreased executive function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shanshan Cao
- Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China
| | - Jun Zhang
- Department of Neurology, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
| | - Chen Chen
- Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China
| | - Xiaojing Wang
- Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China
| | - Yang Ji
- Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China
| | - Jiajia Nie
- Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China
| | - Yanghua Tian
- Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China.,The College of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei, China.,Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China
| | - Bensheng Qiu
- Hefei National Lab for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and the Centers for Biomedical Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
| | - Qiang Wei
- Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China.,Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China
| | - Kai Wang
- Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China.,The College of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei, China.,Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China
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203
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Parras O, Domínguez P, Tomás-Biosca A, Guridi J. The role of tractography in the localisation of the Vim nucleus of the thalamus and the dentatorubrothalamic tract for the treatment of tremor. NEUROLOGÍA (ENGLISH EDITION) 2021; 37:691-699. [DOI: 10.1016/j.nrleng.2019.09.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2019] [Accepted: 09/16/2019] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
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204
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Palesi F, Ferrante M, Gaviraghi M, Misiti A, Savini G, Lascialfari A, D'Angelo E, Gandini Wheeler‐Kingshott CAM. Motor and higher-order functions topography of the human dentate nuclei identified with tractography and clustering methods. Hum Brain Mapp 2021; 42:4348-4361. [PMID: 34087040 PMCID: PMC8356999 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25551] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2021] [Revised: 05/11/2021] [Accepted: 05/17/2021] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Deep gray matter nuclei are the synaptic relays, responsible to route signals between specific brain areas. Dentate nuclei (DNs) represent the main output channel of the cerebellum and yet are often unexplored especially in humans. We developed a multimodal MRI approach to identify DNs topography on the basis of their connectivity as well as their microstructural features. Based on results, we defined DN parcellations deputed to motor and to higher-order functions in humans in vivo. Whole-brain probabilistic tractography was performed on 25 healthy subjects from the Human Connectome Project to infer DN parcellations based on their connectivity with either the cerebral or the cerebellar cortex, in turn. A third DN atlas was created inputting microstructural diffusion-derived metrics in an unsupervised fuzzy c-means classification algorithm. All analyses were performed in native space, with probability atlas maps generated in standard space. Cerebellar lobule-specific connectivity identified one motor parcellation, accounting for about 30% of the DN volume, and two non-motor parcellations, one cognitive and one sensory, which occupied the remaining volume. The other two approaches provided overlapping results in terms of geometrical distribution with those identified with cerebellar lobule-specific connectivity, although with some differences in volumes. A gender effect was observed with respect to motor areas and higher-order function representations. This is the first study that indicates that more than half of the DN volumes is involved in non-motor functions and that connectivity-based and microstructure-based atlases provide complementary information. These results represent a step-ahead for the interpretation of pathological conditions involving cerebro-cerebellar circuits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fulvia Palesi
- Department of Brain and Behavioral SciencesUniversity of PaviaPavia
| | | | - Marta Gaviraghi
- Department of Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical EngineeringUniversity of PaviaPaviaItaly
| | - Anastasia Misiti
- Department of Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical EngineeringUniversity of PaviaPaviaItaly
| | - Giovanni Savini
- Department of NeuroradiologyIRCCS Humanitas Research HospitalMilanItaly
| | | | - Egidio D'Angelo
- Department of Brain and Behavioral SciencesUniversity of PaviaPavia
- Brain Connectivity CenterIRCCS Mondino FoundationPavia
| | - Claudia A. M. Gandini Wheeler‐Kingshott
- Department of Brain and Behavioral SciencesUniversity of PaviaPavia
- Brain Connectivity CenterIRCCS Mondino FoundationPavia
- NMR Research Unit, Queen Square MS Centre, Department of NeuroinflammationUCL Queen Square Institute of NeurologyLondon
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205
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Ferreira F, Akram H, Ashburner J, Zrinzo L, Zhang H, Lambert C. Ventralis intermedius nucleus anatomical variability assessment by MRI structural connectivity. Neuroimage 2021; 238:118231. [PMID: 34089871 PMCID: PMC8960999 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118231] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2020] [Revised: 05/14/2021] [Accepted: 06/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The ventralis intermedius nucleus (Vim) is centrally placed in the dentato-thalamo-cortical pathway (DTCp) and is a key surgical target in the treatment of severe medically refractory tremor. It is not visible on conventional MRI sequences; consequently, stereotactic targeting currently relies on atlas-based coordinates. This fails to capture individual anatomical variability, which may lead to poor long-term clinical efficacy. Probabilistic tractography, combined with known anatomical connectivity, enables localisation of thalamic nuclei at an individual subject level. There are, however, a number of confounds associated with this technique that may influence results. Here we focused on an established method, using probabilistic tractography to reconstruct the DTCp, to identify the connectivity-defined Vim (cd-Vim) in vivo. Using 100 healthy individuals from the Human Connectome Project, our aim was to quantify cd-Vim variability across this population, measure the discrepancy with atlas-defined Vim (ad-Vim), and assess the influence of potential methodological confounds. We found no significant effect of any of the confounds. The mean cd-Vim coordinate was located within 1.88 mm (left) and 2.12 mm (right) of the average midpoint and 3.98 mm (left) and 5.41 mm (right) from the ad-Vim coordinates. cd-Vim location was more variable on the right, which reflects hemispheric asymmetries in the probabilistic DTC reconstructed. The method was reproducible, with no significant cd-Vim location differences in a separate test-retest cohort. The superior cerebellar peduncle was identified as a potential source of artificial variance. This work demonstrates significant individual anatomical variability of the cd-Vim that atlas-based coordinate targeting fails to capture. This variability was not related to any methodological confound tested. Lateralisation of cerebellar functions, such as speech, may contribute to the observed asymmetry. Tractography-based methods seem sensitive to individual anatomical variability that is missed by conventional neurosurgical targeting; these findings may form the basis for translational tools to improve efficacy and reduce side-effects of thalamic surgery for tremor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francisca Ferreira
- EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Intelligent, Integrated Imaging in Healthcare (i4health), University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom; Functional Neurosurgery Unit, Department of Clinical and Motor Neurosciences, UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, WC1N 3BG London, United Kingdom; Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR, United Kingdom.
| | - Harith Akram
- Functional Neurosurgery Unit, Department of Clinical and Motor Neurosciences, UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, WC1N 3BG London, United Kingdom
| | - John Ashburner
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR, United Kingdom
| | - Ludvic Zrinzo
- Functional Neurosurgery Unit, Department of Clinical and Motor Neurosciences, UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, WC1N 3BG London, United Kingdom
| | - Hui Zhang
- EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Intelligent, Integrated Imaging in Healthcare (i4health), University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom; Department of Computer Science and Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
| | - Christian Lambert
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, 12 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR, United Kingdom
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206
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Bocchetta M, Malpetti M, Todd EG, Rowe JB, Rohrer JD. Looking beneath the surface: the importance of subcortical structures in frontotemporal dementia. Brain Commun 2021; 3:fcab158. [PMID: 34458729 PMCID: PMC8390477 DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcab158] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Whilst initial anatomical studies of frontotemporal dementia focussed on cortical involvement, the relevance of subcortical structures to the pathophysiology of frontotemporal dementia has been increasingly recognized over recent years. Key structures affected include the caudate, putamen, nucleus accumbens, and globus pallidus within the basal ganglia, the hippocampus and amygdala within the medial temporal lobe, the basal forebrain, and the diencephalon structures of the thalamus, hypothalamus and habenula. At the most posterior aspect of the brain, focal involvement of brainstem and cerebellum has recently also been shown in certain subtypes of frontotemporal dementia. Many of the neuroimaging studies on subcortical structures in frontotemporal dementia have been performed in clinically defined sporadic cases. However, investigations of genetically- and pathologically-confirmed forms of frontotemporal dementia are increasingly common and provide molecular specificity to the changes observed. Furthermore, detailed analyses of sub-nuclei and subregions within each subcortical structure are being added to the literature, allowing refinement of the patterns of subcortical involvement. This review focuses on the existing literature on structural imaging and neuropathological studies of subcortical anatomy across the spectrum of frontotemporal dementia, along with investigations of brain–behaviour correlates that examine the cognitive sequelae of specific subcortical involvement: it aims to ‘look beneath the surface’ and summarize the patterns of subcortical involvement have been described in frontotemporal dementia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martina Bocchetta
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Maura Malpetti
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Emily G Todd
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
| | - James B Rowe
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.,Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Jonathan D Rohrer
- Dementia Research Centre, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
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207
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Bertino S, Basile GA, Bramanti A, Ciurleo R, Tisano A, Anastasi GP, Milardi D, Cacciola A. Ventral intermediate nucleus structural connectivity-derived segmentation: anatomical reliability and variability. Neuroimage 2021; 243:118519. [PMID: 34461233 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118519] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2021] [Revised: 07/24/2021] [Accepted: 08/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The Ventral intermediate nucleus (Vim) of thalamus is the most targeted structure for the treatment of drug-refractory tremors. Since methodological differences across existing studies are remarkable and no gold-standard pipeline is available, in this study, we tested different parcellation pipelines for tractography-derived putative Vim identification. Thalamic parcellation was performed on a high quality, multi-shell dataset and a downsampled, clinical-like dataset using two different diffusion signal modeling techniques and two different voxel classification criteria, thus implementing a total of four parcellation pipelines. The most reliable pipeline in terms of inter-subject variability has been picked and parcels putatively corresponding to motor thalamic nuclei have been selected by calculating similarity with a histology-based mask of Vim. Then, spatial relations with optimal stimulation points for the treatment of essential tremor have been quantified. Finally, effect of data quality and parcellation pipelines on a volumetric index of connectivity clusters has been assessed. We found that the pipeline characterized by higher-order signal modeling and threshold-based voxel classification criteria was the most reliable in terms of inter-subject variability regardless data quality. The maps putatively corresponding to Vim were those derived by precentral and dentate nucleus-thalamic connectivity. However, tractography-derived functional targets showed remarkable differences in shape and sizes when compared to a ground truth model based on histochemical staining on seriate sections of human brain. Thalamic voxels connected to contralateral dentate nucleus resulted to be the closest to literature-derived stimulation points for essential tremor but at the same time showing the most remarkable inter-subject variability. Finally, the volume of connectivity parcels resulted to be significantly influenced by data quality and parcellation pipelines. Hence, caution is warranted when performing thalamic connectivity-based segmentation for stereotactic targeting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Salvatore Bertino
- Brain Mapping Lab, Department of Biomedical, Dental Sciences and Morphological and Functional Images, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
| | - Gianpaolo Antonio Basile
- Brain Mapping Lab, Department of Biomedical, Dental Sciences and Morphological and Functional Images, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
| | | | | | - Adriana Tisano
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Pio Anastasi
- Brain Mapping Lab, Department of Biomedical, Dental Sciences and Morphological and Functional Images, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
| | - Demetrio Milardi
- Brain Mapping Lab, Department of Biomedical, Dental Sciences and Morphological and Functional Images, University of Messina, Messina, Italy
| | - Alberto Cacciola
- Brain Mapping Lab, Department of Biomedical, Dental Sciences and Morphological and Functional Images, University of Messina, Messina, Italy.
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208
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The specificity of thalamic alterations in Korsakoff's syndrome: Implications for the study of amnesia. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2021; 130:292-300. [PMID: 34454914 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.07.037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2020] [Revised: 04/01/2021] [Accepted: 07/15/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
The pathophysiological mechanisms behind amnesia are still unknown. Recent literature, through the study of patients with Alcohol Use Disorder with and without Korsakoff's syndrome, increasingly shows that physiological alterations to the thalamus have an important role in the development of amnesia. This review gives an overview of neuropsychological, neuropathological and neuroimaging contributions to the understanding of Korsakoff's syndrome, highlighting the central role of the thalamus in this amnesia. The thalamus being a multi-nucleus structure, the limitations regarding the loci, nature and alterations to specific nuclei are discussed, along with potential solutions. Finally, future directions for clinical research are laid out to unravel the intricacies inherent to amnesia. They consider the need to evaluate the physiological role of the thalamus, not only as an entity but also as part of a brain circuit through a more integrative approach.
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209
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Eshel N, Maron-Katz A, Wu W, Abu-Amara D, Marmar CR, Etkin A. Neural correlates of anger expression in patients with PTSD. Neuropsychopharmacology 2021; 46:1635-1642. [PMID: 33500557 PMCID: PMC8280145 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-020-00942-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2020] [Revised: 11/10/2020] [Accepted: 12/09/2020] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
Abstract
Anger is a common and debilitating symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although studies have identified brain circuits underlying anger experience and expression in healthy individuals, how these circuits interact with trauma remains unclear. Here, we performed the first study examining the neural correlates of anger in patients with PTSD. Using a data-driven approach with resting-state fMRI, we identified two prefrontal regions whose overall functional connectivity was inversely associated with anger: the left anterior middle frontal gyrus (aMFG) and the right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). We then used concurrent TMS-EEG to target the left aMFG parcel previously identified through fMRI, measuring its cortical excitability and causal connectivity to downstream areas. We found that low-anger PTSD patients exhibited enhanced excitability in the left aMFG and enhanced causal connectivity between this region and visual areas. Together, our results suggest that left aMFG activity may confer protection against the development of anger, and therefore may be an intriguing target for circuit-based interventions for anger in PTSD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neir Eshel
- Department of Psychiatry, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. .,Sierra-Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
| | - Adi Maron-Katz
- grid.168010.e0000000419368956Department of Psychiatry, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA USA ,grid.280747.e0000 0004 0419 2556Sierra-Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA USA
| | - Wei Wu
- grid.168010.e0000000419368956Department of Psychiatry, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA USA ,grid.79703.3a0000 0004 1764 3838School of Automation Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Duna Abu-Amara
- grid.240324.30000 0001 2109 4251Department of Psychiatry and Center for Alcohol Use Disorder and PTSD, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY USA
| | - Charles R. Marmar
- grid.240324.30000 0001 2109 4251Department of Psychiatry and Center for Alcohol Use Disorder and PTSD, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY USA
| | - Amit Etkin
- grid.168010.e0000000419368956Department of Psychiatry, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA USA ,grid.511021.6Alto Neuroscience, Los Altos, CA USA
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210
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Gozdas E, Fingerhut H, Dacorro L, Bruno JL, Hosseini SMH. Neurite Imaging Reveals Widespread Alterations in Gray and White Matter Neurite Morphology in Healthy Aging and Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:5570-5578. [PMID: 34313731 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2021] [Revised: 04/09/2021] [Accepted: 05/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Aging is the major risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases and affects neurite distributions throughout the brain, yet underlying neurobiological mechanisms remain unclear. Multi-shell diffusion-weighted imaging and neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) now provide in vivo biophysical measurements that explain these biological processes in the cortex and white matter. In this study, neurite distributions were evaluated in the cortex and white matter in healthy older adults and patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) that provides fundamental contributions regarding healthy aging and neurodegeneration. Older age was associated with reduced neurite density and neurite orientation dispersion (ODI) in widespread cortical regions. In contrast, increased ODI was only observed in the right thalamus and hippocampus with age. For the first time, we also reported a widespread age-associated decrease in neurite density along major white matter tracts correlated with decreased cortical neurite density in the tract endpoints in healthy older adults. We further examined alterations in cortical and white matter neurite microstructures in aMCI patients and found significant neurite morphology deficits in memory networks correlated with memory performance. Our findings indicate that neurite parameters provide valuable information regarding cortical and white matter microstructure and complement myeloarchitectural information in healthy aging and aMCI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elveda Gozdas
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94304, USA
| | - Hannah Fingerhut
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94304, USA
| | - Lauren Dacorro
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94304, USA
| | - Jennifer L Bruno
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94304, USA
| | - S M Hadi Hosseini
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94304, USA
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211
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Alballa T, Boone EL, Ma L, Snyder A, Moeller FG. Exploring the relationship between white matter integrity, cocaine use and GAD polymorphisms using Bayesian Model Averaging. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0254776. [PMID: 34310624 PMCID: PMC8312937 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254776] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2020] [Accepted: 07/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Past investigations utilizing diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) have demonstrated that cocaine use disorder (CUD) yields white matter changes, primarily in the corpus callosum. By applying Bayesian model averaging using multiple linear regression in DTI, we demonstrate there may exist relationships between the impaired white matter and glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) polymorphisms. This work explored the two-way and three-way interactions between GAD1a (SNP: rs1978340) and GAD1b (SNP: rs769390) polymorphisms and years of cocaine use (YCU). GAD1a was associated with more frontal white matter changes on its own but GAD1b was associated with more midbrain and cerebellar changes as well as a greater increase in white matter changes in the context of chronic cocaine use. The three-way interaction GAD1a|GAD1b|YCU appeared to be roughly an average of the polymorphism two-way interactions GAD1a|YCU and GAD1b|YCU. The three-way interaction demonstrated multiple regions including corpus callosum which featured fewer significant voxel changes, perhaps suggesting a small protective effect of having both polymorphisms on corpus callosum and cerebellar peduncle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tmader Alballa
- Department of Statistical Sciences and Operations Research, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America
- Mathematical Sciences Department, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
| | - Edward L. Boone
- Department of Statistical Sciences and Operations Research, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America
- Institute of Drug and Alcohol Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America
| | - Liangsuo Ma
- Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America
- Institute of Drug and Alcohol Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America
| | - Andrew Snyder
- C. Kenneth and Dianne Wright, Center for Clinical Translational Research, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America
| | - F. Gerard Moeller
- Institute of Drug and Alcohol Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America
- Department of Neurology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America
- C. Kenneth and Dianne Wright, Center for Clinical Translational Research, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States of America
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212
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Ianus A, Alexander DC, Zhang H, Palombo M. Mapping complex cell morphology in the grey matter with double diffusion encoding MR: A simulation study. Neuroimage 2021; 241:118424. [PMID: 34311067 PMCID: PMC8961003 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118424] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2021] [Revised: 07/13/2021] [Accepted: 07/21/2021] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
This paper investigates the impact of cell body (namely soma) size and branching of cellular projections on diffusion MR imaging (dMRI) and spectroscopy (dMRS) signals for both standard single diffusion encoding (SDE) and more advanced double diffusion encoding (DDE) measurements using numerical simulations. The aim is to investigate the ability of dMRI/dMRS to characterize the complex morphology of brain cells focusing on these two distinctive features of brain grey matter. To this end, we employ a recently developed computational framework to create three dimensional meshes of neuron-like structures for Monte Carlo simulations, using diffusion coefficients typical of water and brain metabolites. Modelling the cellular structure as realistically connected spherical soma and cylindrical cellular projections, we cover a wide range of combinations of sphere radii and branching order of cellular projections, characteristic of various grey matter cells. We assess the impact of spherical soma size and branching order on the b-value dependence of the SDE signal as well as the time dependence of the mean diffusivity (MD) and mean kurtosis (MK). Moreover, we also assess the impact of spherical soma size and branching order on the angular modulation of DDE signal at different mixing times, together with the mixing time dependence of the apparent microscopic anisotropy (μA), a promising contrast derived from DDE measurements. The SDE results show that spherical soma size has a measurable impact on both the b-value dependence of the SDE signal and the MD and MK diffusion time dependence for both water and metabolites. On the other hand, we show that branching order has little impact on either, especially for water. In contrast, the DDE results show that spherical soma size has a measurable impact on the DDE signal's angular modulation at short mixing times and the branching order of cellular projections significantly impacts the mixing time dependence of the DDE signal's angular modulation as well as of the derived μA, for both water and metabolites. Our results confirm that SDE based techniques may be sensitive to spherical soma size, and most importantly, show for the first time that DDE measurements may be more sensitive to the dendritic tree complexity (as parametrized by the branching order of cellular projections), paving the way for new ways of characterizing grey matter morphology, non-invasively using dMRS and potentially dMRI.
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Affiliation(s)
- A Ianus
- Centre for Medical Image Computing and Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, United Kingdom; Champalimaud Research, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - D C Alexander
- Centre for Medical Image Computing and Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - H Zhang
- Centre for Medical Image Computing and Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - M Palombo
- Centre for Medical Image Computing and Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
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213
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Basile GA, Bertino S, Bramanti A, Ciurleo R, Anastasi GP, Milardi D, Cacciola A. In Vivo Super-Resolution Track-Density Imaging for Thalamic Nuclei Identification. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:5613-5636. [PMID: 34296740 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab184] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2021] [Revised: 05/23/2021] [Accepted: 05/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The development of novel techniques for the in vivo, non-invasive visualization and identification of thalamic nuclei has represented a major challenge for human neuroimaging research in the last decades. Thalamic nuclei have important implications in various key aspects of brain physiology and many of them show selective alterations in various neurologic and psychiatric disorders. In addition, both surgical stimulation and ablation of specific thalamic nuclei have been proven to be useful for the treatment of different neuropsychiatric diseases. The present work aimed at describing a novel protocol for histologically guided delineation of thalamic nuclei based on short-tracks track-density imaging (stTDI), which is an advanced imaging technique exploiting high angular resolution diffusion tractography to obtain super-resolved white matter maps. We demonstrated that this approach can identify up to 13 distinct thalamic nuclei bilaterally with very high inter-subject (ICC: 0.996, 95% CI: 0.993-0.998) and inter-rater (ICC:0.981; 95% CI:0.963-0.989) reliability, and that both subject-based and group-level thalamic parcellation show a fair share of similarity to a recent standard-space histological thalamic atlas. Finally, we showed that stTDI-derived thalamic maps can be successfully employed to study structural and functional connectivity of the thalamus and may have potential implications both for basic and translational research, as well as for presurgical planning purposes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gianpaolo Antonio Basile
- Brain Mapping Lab, Department of Biomedical, Dental Sciences and Morphological and Functional Images, University of Messina, 98124 Messina, Italy
| | - Salvatore Bertino
- Brain Mapping Lab, Department of Biomedical, Dental Sciences and Morphological and Functional Images, University of Messina, 98124 Messina, Italy
| | - Alessia Bramanti
- Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry "Medical School of Salerno", University of Salerno, 84084 Baronissi, Italy
| | - Rosella Ciurleo
- IRCCS Centro Neurolesi "Bonino Pulejo", 98124 Messina, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Pio Anastasi
- Brain Mapping Lab, Department of Biomedical, Dental Sciences and Morphological and Functional Images, University of Messina, 98124 Messina, Italy
| | - Demetrio Milardi
- Brain Mapping Lab, Department of Biomedical, Dental Sciences and Morphological and Functional Images, University of Messina, 98124 Messina, Italy
| | - Alberto Cacciola
- Brain Mapping Lab, Department of Biomedical, Dental Sciences and Morphological and Functional Images, University of Messina, 98124 Messina, Italy
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214
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Raghu ALB, Eraifej J, Sarangmat N, Stein J, FitzGerald JJ, Payne S, Aziz TZ, Green AL. Pallido-putaminal connectivity predicts outcomes of deep brain stimulation for cervical dystonia. Brain 2021; 144:3589-3596. [PMID: 34293093 PMCID: PMC8719844 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awab280] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2021] [Revised: 06/14/2021] [Accepted: 07/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Cervical dystonia is a non-degenerative movement disorder characterized by dysfunction of both motor and sensory cortico-basal ganglia networks. Deep brain stimulation targeted to the internal pallidum is an established treatment, but its specific mechanisms remain elusive, and response to therapy is highly variable. Modulation of key dysfunctional networks via axonal connections is likely important. Fifteen patients underwent preoperative diffusion-MRI acquisitions and then progressed to bilateral deep brain stimulation targeting the posterior internal pallidum. Severity of disease was assessed preoperatively and later at follow-up. Scans were used to generate tractography-derived connectivity estimates between the bilateral regions of stimulation and relevant structures. Connectivity to the putamen correlated with clinical improvement, and a series of cortical connectivity-based putaminal parcellations identified the primary motor putamen as the key node (r = 0.70, P = 0.004). A regression model with this connectivity and electrode coordinates explained 68% of the variance in outcomes (r = 0.83, P = 0.001), with both as significant explanatory variables. We conclude that modulation of the primary motor putamen–posterior internal pallidum limb of the cortico-basal ganglia loop is characteristic of successful deep brain stimulation treatment of cervical dystonia. Preoperative diffusion imaging contains additional information that predicts outcomes, implying utility for patient selection and/or individualized targeting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ashley L B Raghu
- Oxford Functional Neurosurgery, Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - John Eraifej
- Oxford Functional Neurosurgery, Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.,Department of Neurosurgery, John Radcliffe, Hospital, Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, UK
| | - Nagaraja Sarangmat
- Department of Neurology, John Radcliffe, Hospital, Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, UK
| | - John Stein
- Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - James J FitzGerald
- Oxford Functional Neurosurgery, Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.,Department of Neurosurgery, John Radcliffe, Hospital, Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, UK
| | - Stephen Payne
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Engineering, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Tipu Z Aziz
- Oxford Functional Neurosurgery, Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.,Department of Neurosurgery, John Radcliffe, Hospital, Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, UK
| | - Alexander L Green
- Oxford Functional Neurosurgery, Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.,Department of Neurosurgery, John Radcliffe, Hospital, Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, UK
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215
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Merola A, Singh J, Reeves K, Changizi B, Goetz S, Rossi L, Pallavaram S, Carcieri S, Harel N, Shaikhouni A, Sammartino F, Krishna V, Verhagen L, Dalm B. New Frontiers for Deep Brain Stimulation: Directionality, Sensing Technologies, Remote Programming, Robotic Stereotactic Assistance, Asleep Procedures, and Connectomics. Front Neurol 2021; 12:694747. [PMID: 34367055 PMCID: PMC8340024 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2021.694747] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2021] [Accepted: 06/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Over the last few years, while expanding its clinical indications from movement disorders to epilepsy and psychiatry, the field of deep brain stimulation (DBS) has seen significant innovations. Hardware developments have introduced directional leads to stimulate specific brain targets and sensing electrodes to determine optimal settings via feedback from local field potentials. In addition, variable-frequency stimulation and asynchronous high-frequency pulse trains have introduced new programming paradigms to efficiently desynchronize pathological neural circuitry and regulate dysfunctional brain networks not responsive to conventional settings. Overall, these innovations have provided clinicians with more anatomically accurate programming and closed-looped feedback to identify optimal strategies for neuromodulation. Simultaneously, software developments have simplified programming algorithms, introduced platforms for DBS remote management via telemedicine, and tools for estimating the volume of tissue activated within and outside the DBS targets. Finally, the surgical accuracy has improved thanks to intraoperative magnetic resonance or computerized tomography guidance, network-based imaging for DBS planning and targeting, and robotic-assisted surgery for ultra-accurate, millimetric lead placement. These technological and imaging advances have collectively optimized DBS outcomes and allowed “asleep” DBS procedures. Still, the short- and long-term outcomes of different implantable devices, surgical techniques, and asleep vs. awake procedures remain to be clarified. This expert review summarizes and critically discusses these recent innovations and their potential impact on the DBS field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aristide Merola
- Department of Neurology, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, United States
| | - Jaysingh Singh
- Department of Neurology, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, United States
| | - Kevin Reeves
- Department of Psychiatry, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, United States
| | - Barbara Changizi
- Department of Neurology, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, United States
| | - Steven Goetz
- Medtronic PLC Neuromodulation, Minneapolis, MN, United States
| | | | | | | | - Noam Harel
- Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, United States
| | - Ammar Shaikhouni
- Department of Neurosurgery, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, United States
| | - Francesco Sammartino
- Department of Neurosurgery, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, United States
| | - Vibhor Krishna
- Department of Neurosurgery, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, United States
| | - Leo Verhagen
- Movement Disorder Section, Department of Neurological Sciences, Rush University, Chicago, IL, United States
| | - Brian Dalm
- Department of Neurosurgery, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, United States
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216
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Abstract
Action videogames have been shown to induce modifications in perceptual and cognitive systems, as well as in brain structure and function. Nevertheless, whether such changes are correlated with brain functional connectivity modifications outlasting the training period is not known. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used in order to quantify acute and long-lasting connectivity changes following a sustained gaming experience on a first-person shooter (FPS) game. Thirty-five healthy participants were assigned to either a gaming or a control group prior to the acquisition of resting state fMRI data and a comprehensive cognitive assessment at baseline (T0), post-gaming (T1) and at a 3 months' follow-up (T2). Seed-based resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) analysis revealed a significant greater connectivity between left thalamus and left parahippocampal gyrus in the gamer group, both at T1 and at T2. Furthermore, a positive increase in the rs-FC between the cerebellum, Heschl's gyrus and the middle frontal gyrus paralleled improvements of in-gaming performance. In addition, baseline rs-FC of left supramarginal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus and right cerebellum were associated with individual changes in videogame performance. Finally, enhancement of perceptual and attentional measures was observed at both T1 and T2, which correlated with a pattern of rs-FC changes in bilateral occipito-temporal regions belonging to the visual and attention fMRI networks. The present findings increase knowledge on functional connectivity changes induced by action videogames, pointing to a greater and long-lasting synchronization between brain regions associated with spatial orientation, visual discrimination and motor learning even after a relatively short multi-day gaming exposure.
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217
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Walker MR, Zhong J, Waspe AC, Piorkowska K, Nguyen LN, Anastakis DJ, Drake JM, Hodaie M. Peripheral Nerve Focused Ultrasound Lesioning-Visualization and Assessment Using Diffusion Weighted Imaging. Front Neurol 2021; 12:673060. [PMID: 34305786 PMCID: PMC8299784 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2021.673060] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2021] [Accepted: 06/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Objectives: Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) is a non-invasive targeted tissue ablation technique that can be applied to the nervous system. Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) can visualize and evaluate nervous system microstructure. Tractography algorithms can reconstruct fiber bundles which can be used for treatment navigation and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics permit the quantitative assessment of nerve microstructure in vivo. There is a need for imaging tools to aid in the visualization and quantitative assessment of treatment-related nerve changes in MRgFUS. We present a method of peripheral nerve tract reconstruction and use DTI metrics to evaluate the MRgFUS treatment effect. Materials and Methods: MRgFUS was applied bilaterally to the sciatic nerves in 6 piglets (12 nerves total). T1-weighted and diffusion images were acquired before and after treatment. Tensor-based and constrained spherical deconvolution (CSD) tractography algorithms were used to reconstruct the nerves. DTI metrics of fractional anisotropy (FA), and mean (MD), axial (AD), and radial diffusivities (RD) were measured to assess acute (<1-2 h) treatment effects. Temperature was measured in vivo via MR thermometry. Histological data was collected for lesion assessment. Results: The sciatic nerves were successfully reconstructed in all subjects. Tract disruption was observed after treatment using both CSD and tensor models. DTI metrics in the targeted nerve segments showed significantly decreased FA and increased MD, AD, and RD. Transducer output power was positively correlated with lesion volume and temperature and negatively correlated with MD, AD, and RD. No correlations were observed between FA and other measured parameters. Conclusions: DWI and tractography are effective tools for visualizing peripheral nerve segments for targeting in non-invasive surgical methods and for assessing the microstructural changes that occur following MRgFUS treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew R Walker
- Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Division of Brain, Imaging & Behaviour, Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Jidan Zhong
- Division of Brain, Imaging & Behaviour, Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Adam C Waspe
- Centre for Image Guided Innovation and Therapeutic Intervention, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Department of Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Karolina Piorkowska
- Centre for Image Guided Innovation and Therapeutic Intervention, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Lananh N Nguyen
- Laboratory Medicine Program, University Health Network and University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Dimitri J Anastakis
- Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Division of Brain, Imaging & Behaviour, Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Department of Surgery, Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network and University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - James M Drake
- Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Centre for Image Guided Innovation and Therapeutic Intervention, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Department of Neurosurgery, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Mojgan Hodaie
- Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Division of Brain, Imaging & Behaviour, Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.,Department of Neurosurgery, Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada
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218
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Barredo J, Berlow Y, Swearingen HR, Greenberg BD, Carpenter LL, Philip NS. Multimodal Elements of Suicidality Reduction After Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. Neuromodulation 2021; 24:930-937. [PMID: 33650209 PMCID: PMC8295183 DOI: 10.1111/ner.13376] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2020] [Revised: 01/15/2021] [Accepted: 02/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a promising treatment for suicidality, but it is underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. Our prior findings indicated that frontostriatal functional connectivity correlates with the severity of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. In this secondary analysis of data from an open label trial, we evaluated whether changes in frontostriatal functional connectivity would accompany suicidality reductions following TMS. We also explored the relationship between frontostriatal connectivity change and underlying white matter (WM) organization. MATERIALS AND METHODS We conducted seed-based functional connectivity analysis on participants (N = 25) with comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder and depression who received eight weeks of 5 Hz TMS to left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. We measured clinical symptoms with the Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Self Report (IDS-SR) and the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). We derived suicidality from IDS-SR item 18. Magnetic resonance imaging data were collected before TMS, and at treatment end point. These data were entered into analyses of covariance, evaluating the effect of suicidality change across treatment on striatal and thalamic functional connectivity. Changes in other PTSD and depression symptoms were included as covariates and results were corrected for multiple comparisons. Diffusion connectometry in a participant subsample (N = 17) explored the relationship between frontal WM integrity at treatment baseline and subsequent functional connectivity changes correlated with differences in suicidality. RESULTS Suicidal ideation decreased in 65% of participants. Reductions in suicidality and functional connectivity between the dorsal striatum and frontopolar cortex were correlated (p-False Discover Rate-corrected < 0.001), after covariance for clinical symptom change. All other results were nonsignificant. Our connectometry results indicated that the integrity of frontostriatal WM may circumscribe functional connectivity response to TMS for suicide. CONCLUSIONS Targeted reduction of fronto-striatal connectivity with TMS may be a promising treatment for suicidality. Future research can build on this multimodal approach to advance individualized stimulation approaches in high-risk patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer Barredo
- Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical SchoolBrown UniversityProvidenceRIUSA
- Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology, Providence VA Medical CenterProvidenceRIUSA
- COBRE Center for Neuromodulation at Butler HospitalProvidenceRIUSA
| | - Yosef Berlow
- Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical SchoolBrown UniversityProvidenceRIUSA
- Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology, Providence VA Medical CenterProvidenceRIUSA
| | - Hannah R. Swearingen
- Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology, Providence VA Medical CenterProvidenceRIUSA
| | - Benjamin D. Greenberg
- Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical SchoolBrown UniversityProvidenceRIUSA
- Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology, Providence VA Medical CenterProvidenceRIUSA
- COBRE Center for Neuromodulation at Butler HospitalProvidenceRIUSA
| | - Linda L. Carpenter
- Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical SchoolBrown UniversityProvidenceRIUSA
- COBRE Center for Neuromodulation at Butler HospitalProvidenceRIUSA
| | - Noah S. Philip
- Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical SchoolBrown UniversityProvidenceRIUSA
- Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology, Providence VA Medical CenterProvidenceRIUSA
- COBRE Center for Neuromodulation at Butler HospitalProvidenceRIUSA
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219
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Hansen CB, Yang Q, Lyu I, Rheault F, Kerley C, Chandio BQ, Fadnavis S, Williams O, Shafer AT, Resnick SM, Zald DH, Cutting LE, Taylor WD, Boyd B, Garyfallidis E, Anderson AW, Descoteaux M, Landman BA, Schilling KG. Pandora: 4-D White Matter Bundle Population-Based Atlases Derived from Diffusion MRI Fiber Tractography. Neuroinformatics 2021; 19:447-460. [PMID: 33196967 PMCID: PMC8124084 DOI: 10.1007/s12021-020-09497-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Brain atlases have proven to be valuable neuroscience tools for localizing regions of interest and performing statistical inferences on populations. Although many human brain atlases exist, most do not contain information about white matter structures, often neglecting them completely or labelling all white matter as a single homogenous substrate. While few white matter atlases do exist based on diffusion MRI fiber tractography, they are often limited to descriptions of white matter as spatially separate "regions" rather than as white matter "bundles" or fascicles, which are well-known to overlap throughout the brain. Additional limitations include small sample sizes, few white matter pathways, and the use of outdated diffusion models and techniques. Here, we present a new population-based collection of white matter atlases represented in both volumetric and surface coordinates in a standard space. These atlases are based on 2443 subjects, and include 216 white matter bundles derived from 6 different automated state-of-the-art tractography techniques. This atlas is freely available and will be a useful resource for parcellation and segmentation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Colin B Hansen
- Department of Computer Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Qi Yang
- Department of Computer Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Ilwoo Lyu
- Department of Computer Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Francois Rheault
- Sherbrooke Connectivity Imaging Laboratory (SCIL), Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada
| | - Cailey Kerley
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Bramsh Qamar Chandio
- Department of Intelligent Systems Engineering, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Shreyas Fadnavis
- Department of Intelligent Systems Engineering, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Owen Williams
- Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Andrea T Shafer
- Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Susan M Resnick
- Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - David H Zald
- Center for Advanced Human Brain Imaging Research, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - Laurie E Cutting
- Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Warren D Taylor
- Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Brian Boyd
- Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Eleftherios Garyfallidis
- Department of Intelligent Systems Engineering, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
- Program of Neuroscience, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Adam W Anderson
- Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Maxime Descoteaux
- Sherbrooke Connectivity Imaging Laboratory (SCIL), Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada
| | - Bennett A Landman
- Department of Computer Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Kurt G Schilling
- Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
- Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
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220
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Chen Q, Baran TM, Turnbull A, Zhang Z, Rebok GW, Lin FV. Increased segregation of structural brain networks underpins enhanced broad cognitive abilities of cognitive training. Hum Brain Mapp 2021; 42:3202-3215. [PMID: 33955088 PMCID: PMC8193523 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25428] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2020] [Revised: 02/26/2021] [Accepted: 03/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
A major challenge in the cognitive training field is inducing broad, far-transfer training effects. Thus far, little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying broad training effects. Here, we tested a set of competitive hypotheses regarding the role of brain integration versus segregation underlying the broad training effect. We retrospectively analyzed data from a randomized controlled trial comparing neurocognitive effects of vision-based speed of processing training (VSOP) and an active control consisting of mental leisure activities (MLA) in older adults with MCI. We classified a subset of participants in the VSOP as learners, who showed improvement in executive function and episodic memory. The other participants in the VSOP (i.e., VSOP non-learners) and a subset of participants in the MLA (i.e., MLA non-learners) served as controls. Structural brain networks were constructed from diffusion tensor imaging. Clustering coefficients (CCs) and characteristic path lengths were computed as measures of segregation and integration, respectively. Learners showed significantly greater global CCs after intervention than controls. Nodal CCs were selectively enhanced in cingulate cortex, parietal regions, striatum, and thalamus. Among VSOP learners, those with more severe baseline neurodegeneration had greater improvement in segregation after training. Our findings suggest broad training effects are related to enhanced segregation in selective brain networks, providing insight into cognitive training related neuroplasticity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Quanjing Chen
- Elaine C. Hubbard Center for Nursing Research on Aging, School of NursingUniversity of Rochester Medical CenterRochesterNew YorkUSA
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and DentistryUniversity of Rochester Medical CenterRochesterNew YorkUSA
| | - Timothy M. Baran
- Department of Biomedical EngineeringUniversity of RochesterRochesterNew YorkUSA
- Department of Imaging SciencesUniversity of Rochester Medical CenterRochesterNew YorkUSA
| | - Adam Turnbull
- Elaine C. Hubbard Center for Nursing Research on Aging, School of NursingUniversity of Rochester Medical CenterRochesterNew YorkUSA
- Department of Imaging SciencesUniversity of Rochester Medical CenterRochesterNew YorkUSA
| | - Zhengwu Zhang
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational BiologyUniversity of Rochester Medical CenterRochesterNew YorkUSA
| | - George W. Rebok
- Department of Mental HealthJohns Hopkins UniversityBaltimoreMarylandUSA
| | - Feng Vankee Lin
- Elaine C. Hubbard Center for Nursing Research on Aging, School of NursingUniversity of Rochester Medical CenterRochesterNew YorkUSA
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine and DentistryUniversity of Rochester Medical CenterRochesterNew YorkUSA
- Department of Brain and Cognitive SciencesUniversity of RochesterRochesterNew YorkUSA
- Department of Neuroscience, School of Medicine and DentistryUniversity of Rochester Medical CenterRochesterNew YorkUSA
- Department of Neurology, School of Medicine and DentistryUniversity of Rochester Medical CenterRochesterNew YorkUSA
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Owens-Walton C, Jakabek D, Power BD, Walterfang M, Hall S, van Westen D, Looi JCL, Shaw M, Hansson O. Structural and functional neuroimaging changes associated with cognitive impairment and dementia in Parkinson's disease. Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging 2021; 312:111273. [PMID: 33892387 DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2021.111273] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2020] [Revised: 12/09/2020] [Accepted: 01/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
This study seeks a better understanding of possible pathophysiological mechanisms associated with cognitive impairment and dementia in Parkinson's disease using structural and functional MRI. We investigated resting-state functional connectivity of important subdivisions of the caudate nucleus, putamen and thalamus, and also how the morphology of these structures are impacted in the disorder. We found cognitively unimpaired Parkinson's disease subjects (n = 33), compared to controls (n = 26), display increased functional connectivity of the dorsal caudate, anterior putamen and mediodorsal thalamic subdivisions with areas across the frontal lobe, as well as reduced functional connectivity of the dorsal caudate with posterior cortical and cerebellar regions. Compared to cognitively unimpaired subjects, those with mild cognitive impairment (n = 22) demonstrated reduced functional connectivity of the mediodorsal thalamus with the paracingulate cortex, while also demonstrating increased functional connectivity of the mediodorsal thalamus with the posterior cingulate cortex, compared to subjects with dementia (n = 17). Extensive volumetric and surface-based deflation was found in subjects with dementia compared to cognitively unimpaired Parkinson's disease participants and controls. Our research suggests that structures within basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits are implicated in cognitive impairment and dementia in Parkinson's disease, with cognitive impairment and dementia associated with a breakdown in functional connectivity of the mediodorsal thalamus with para- and posterior cingulate regions of the brain respectively.
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Affiliation(s)
- Conor Owens-Walton
- Research Centre for the Neurosciences of Ageing, Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, Medical School, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
| | - David Jakabek
- Graduate School of Medicine, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
| | - Brian D Power
- School of Medicine, The University of Notre Dame, Fremantle, Australia; Clinical Research Centre, North Metropolitan Health Service - Mental Health, Perth, Australia
| | - Mark Walterfang
- Neuropsychiatry Unit, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, University of Melbourne and Melbourne Health, Melbourne, Australia; Florey Institute of Neurosciences and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Sara Hall
- Memory Clinic, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden; Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden
| | - Danielle van Westen
- Centre for Medical Imaging and Physiology, Skåne University Hospital, Lund, Sweden; Diagnostic Radiology, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | - Jeffrey C L Looi
- Research Centre for the Neurosciences of Ageing, Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, Medical School, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia; Neuropsychiatry Unit, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, University of Melbourne and Melbourne Health, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Marnie Shaw
- College of Engineering and Computer Science, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
| | - Oskar Hansson
- Memory Clinic, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden; Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden
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Reduced frontal white matter microstructure in healthy older adults with low tactile recognition performance. Sci Rep 2021; 11:11689. [PMID: 34083614 PMCID: PMC8175740 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-90995-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2020] [Accepted: 05/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
The aging of the nervous system is a heterogeneous process. It remains a significant challenge to identify relevant markers of pathological and healthy brain aging. A central aspect of aging are decreased sensory acuities, especially because they correlate with the decline in higher cognitive functioning. Sensory and higher cognitive processing relies on information flow between distant brain areas. Aging leads to disintegration of the underlying white matter tracts. While this disintegration is assumed to contribute to higher cognitive decline, data linking structural integrity and sensory function are sparse. The investigation of their interrelation may provide valuable insight into the mechanisms of brain aging. We used a combined behavioral and neuroimaging approach and investigated to what extent changes in microstructural white matter integrity reflect performance declines in tactile pattern recognition with aging. Poor performance in older participants was related to decreased integrity in the anterior corpus callosum. Probabilistic tractography showed that this structure is connected to the prefrontal cortices. Our data point to decreased integrity in the anterior corpus callosum as a marker for advanced brain aging. The correlation between impaired tactile recognition and disintegration in frontal brain networks could provide an explanation why the decrease of sensory function predicts cognitive decline.
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Albers KJ, Ambrosen KS, Liptrot MG, Dyrby TB, Schmidt MN, Mørup M. Using connectomics for predictive assessment of brain parcellations. Neuroimage 2021; 238:118170. [PMID: 34087365 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118170] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2021] [Revised: 04/19/2021] [Accepted: 05/10/2021] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
The organization of the human brain remains elusive, yet is of great importance to the mechanisms of integrative brain function. At the macroscale, its structural and functional interpretation is conventionally assessed at the level of cortical units. However, the definition and validation of such cortical parcellations are problematic due to the absence of a true gold standard. We propose a framework for quantitative evaluation of brain parcellations via statistical prediction of connectomics data. Specifically, we evaluate the extent in which the network representation at the level of cortical units (defined as parcels) accounts for high-resolution brain connectivity. Herein, we assess the pertinence and comparative ranking of ten existing parcellation atlases to account for functional (FC) and structural connectivity (SC) data based on data from the Human Connectome Project (HCP), and compare them to data-driven as well as spatially-homogeneous geometric parcellations including geodesic parcellations with similar size distributions as the atlases. We find substantial discrepancy in parcellation structures that well characterize FC and SC and differences in what well represents an individual's functional connectome when compared against the FC structure that is preserved across individuals. Surprisingly, simple spatial homogenous parcellations generally provide good representations of both FC and SC, but are inferior when their within-parcellation distribution of individual parcel sizes is matched to that of a valid atlas. This suggests that the choice of fine grained and coarse representations used by existing atlases are important. However, we find that resolution is more critical than the exact border location of parcels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristoffer J Albers
- Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark, Richard Petersens Plads, Building 324, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Karen S Ambrosen
- Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark, Richard Petersens Plads, Building 324, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark; Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance,Centre for Functional and Diagnostic Imaging and Research, Copenhagen University Hospital Amager and Hvidovre, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Matthew G Liptrot
- Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark, Richard Petersens Plads, Building 324, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Tim B Dyrby
- Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark, Richard Petersens Plads, Building 324, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark; Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance,Centre for Functional and Diagnostic Imaging and Research, Copenhagen University Hospital Amager and Hvidovre, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Mikkel N Schmidt
- Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark, Richard Petersens Plads, Building 324, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Morten Mørup
- Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark, Richard Petersens Plads, Building 324, DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.
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Delineating the Decussating Dentato-rubro-thalamic Tract and Its Connections in Humans Using Diffusion Spectrum Imaging Techniques. THE CEREBELLUM 2021; 21:101-115. [PMID: 34052968 DOI: 10.1007/s12311-021-01283-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
The objective of this study was to identify the decussating dentato-rubro-thalamic tract (d-DRTT) and its afferent and efferent connections in healthy humans using diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) techniques. In the present study, the trajectory and lateralization of the d-DRTT was explored using data from subjects in the Massachusetts General Hospital-Human Connectome Project adult diffusion dataset. The afferent and efferent networks that compose the cerebello-thalamo-cerebral pathways were also reconstructed. Correlation analysis was performed to identify interrelationships between subdivisions of the cerebello-dentato-rubro-thalamic and thalamo-cerebral connections. The d-DRTT was visualized bilaterally in 28 subjects. According to a normalized quantitative anisotropy and lateralization index evaluation, the left and right d-DRTT were relatively symmetric. Afferent regions were found mainly in the posterior cerebellum, especially the entire lobule VII (crus I, II and VIIb). Efferent fibers mainly are projected to the contralateral frontal cortex, including the motor and nonmotor regions. Correlations between cerebello-thalamic connections and thalamo-cerebral connections were positive, including the lobule VIIa (crus I and II) to the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and lobules VI, VIIb, VIII, and IX, to the MPFC and motor and premotor areas. These results provide DSI-based tratographic evidence showing segregated and parallel cerebellar outputs to cerebral regions. The posterior cerebellum may play an important role in supporting and handling cognitive activities through d-DRTT. Future studies will allow for a more comprehensive understanding of cerebello-cerebral connections.
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Kheiralla O, Abdalkariem A, Alghamdi A, Tajaldeen A, Hamid N. Diffusion Tensor Imaging: A Promising New Technique for Accurate Identification of the Stria Medullaris and Habenula. Open Neuroimag J 2021. [DOI: 10.2174/1874440002114010001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The Stria Medullaris (SM) is a white-matter tract that contains afferent fibres that connect the cognitive-emotional areas in the forebrain to the Habenula (Hb). The Hb plays an important role in behavioral responses to reward, stress, anxiety, pain, and sleep through its action on neuromodulator systems. The Fasciculus Retroflexus (FR) forms the primary output of the Hb to the midbrain. The SM, Hb, and FR are part of a special pathway between the forebrain and the midbrain known as the Dorsal Diencephalic Conduction system (DDC). Hb dysfunction is accompanied by different types of neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, depression, and Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD). Due to difficulties in the imaging assessment of the SM and HB in vivo, they had not been a focus of clinical studies until the invention of Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), which has revolutionized the imaging and investigation of the SM and Hb. DTI has facilitated the imaging of the SM and Hb and has provided insights into their properties through the investigation of their monoamine dysregulation. DTI is a well-established technique for mapping brain microstructure and white matter tracts; it provides indirect information about the microstructural architecture and integrity of white matter in vivo, based on water diffusion properties in the intra- and extracellular space, such as Axial Diffusivity (AD), Radial Diffusivity (RD), mean diffusivity, and Fractional Anisotropy (FA). Neurosurgeons have recognized the potential value of DTI in the direct anatomical targeting of the SM and Hb prior to Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery for the treatment of certain neuropsychiatric conditions, such as TRD. DTI is the only non-invasive method that offers the possibility of visualization in vivo of the white-matter tracts and nuclei in the human brain. This review study summarizes the use of DTI as a promising new imaging method for accurate identification of the SM and Hb, with special emphasis on direct anatomical targeting of the SM and Hb prior to DBS surgery.
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Trigeminal neuralgia diffusivities using Gaussian process classification and merged group tractography. Pain 2021; 162:361-371. [PMID: 32701655 DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2019] [Accepted: 07/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
ABSTRACT Imaging of trigeminal neuralgia (TN) has demonstrated key diffusion tensor imaging-based diffusivity alterations in the trigeminal nerve; however, imaging has primarily focused on the peripheral nerve segment because of previous limitations in reliably segmenting small fiber bundles across multiple subjects. We used Selective Automated Group Integrated Tractography to study 36 subjects with TN (right-sided pain) and 36 sex-matched controls to examine the trigeminal nerve (fifth cranial nerve [CN V]), pontine decussation (TPT), and thalamocortical fibers (S1). Gaussian process classifiers were trained by scrolling a moving window over CN V, TPT, and S1 tractography centroids. Fractional anisotropy (FA), generalized FA, radial diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and mean diffusivity metrics were evaluated for both groups, analyzing TN vs control groups and affected vs unaffected sides. Classifiers that performed at greater-than-or-equal-to 70% accuracy were included. Gaussian process classifier consistently demonstrated bilateral trigeminal changes, differentiating them from controls with an accuracy of 80%. Affected and unaffected sides could be differentiated from each other with 75% accuracy. Bilateral TPT could be distinguished from controls with at least 85% accuracy. TPT left-right classification achieved 98% accuracy. Bilateral S1 could be differentiated from controls, where the affected S1 radial diffusivity classifier achieved 87% accuracy. This is the first TN study that combines group-wise merged tractography, machine learning classification, and analysis of the complete trigeminal pathways from the peripheral fibers to S1 cortex. This analysis demonstrates that TN is characterized by bilateral abnormalities throughout the trigeminal pathway compared with controls and abnormalities between affected and unaffected sides. This full pathway tractography study of TN demonstrates bilateral changes throughout the trigeminal pathway and changes between affected and unaffected sides.
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227
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Levinson M, Podvalny E, Baete SH, He BJ. Cortical and subcortical signatures of conscious object recognition. Nat Commun 2021; 12:2930. [PMID: 34006884 PMCID: PMC8131711 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23266-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2020] [Accepted: 04/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
The neural mechanisms underlying conscious recognition remain unclear, particularly the roles played by the prefrontal cortex, deactivated brain areas and subcortical regions. We investigated neural activity during conscious object recognition using 7 Tesla fMRI while human participants viewed object images presented at liminal contrasts. Here, we show both recognized and unrecognized images recruit widely distributed cortical and subcortical regions; however, recognized images elicit enhanced activation of visual, frontoparietal, and subcortical networks and stronger deactivation of the default-mode network. For recognized images, object category information can be decoded from all of the involved cortical networks but not from subcortical regions. Phase-scrambled images trigger strong involvement of inferior frontal junction, anterior cingulate cortex and default-mode network, implicating these regions in inferential processing under increased uncertainty. Our results indicate that content-specific activity in both activated and deactivated cortical networks and non-content-specific subcortical activity support conscious recognition. Cortical and subcortical neural activity supporting conscious object recognition has not yet been well defined. Here, the authors describe these networks and show recognition-related category information can be decoded from widespread cortical activity but not subcortical activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Max Levinson
- Neuroscience Institute, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - Ella Podvalny
- Neuroscience Institute, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - Steven H Baete
- Department of Radiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - Biyu J He
- Neuroscience Institute, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA. .,Department of Radiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA. .,Department of Neurology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA. .,Department of Neuroscience & Physiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
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228
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Leroux E, Poirel N, Dollfus S. Anatomical Connectivity of the Visuospatial Attentional Network in Schizophrenia: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Tractography Study. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 2021; 32:266-273. [PMID: 31948322 DOI: 10.1176/appi.neuropsych.19040101] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE In healthy individuals, the visuospatial attentional network consists of frontoparietal bundles; however, the anatomical organization of this network in persons with schizophrenia remains largely unknown. Using diffusion tensor imaging-based tractography, the authors investigated the white matter integrity and volume of frontoparietal and frontotemporo-occipital bundles in the right and left hemispheres and studied their structural asymmetry in persons with schizophrenia and in healthy individuals. METHODS This study included 34 participants with schizophrenia and 69 healthy individuals. Integrity parameters and volume were calculated in the three branches of the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF I, II, and III), the inferior longitudinal fasciculus, and the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus in both hemispheres. RESULTS In the SLF II and SLF III of the right hemisphere, healthy individuals showed greater integrity, compared with participants with schizophrenia. Both groups presented increased integrity in the SLF III of the right hemisphere, compared with the SLF III of the left hemisphere, but only healthy individuals had this pattern regarding the SLF II. Bundle volumes did not differ between groups. CONCLUSIONS This study is the first to describe the structural hemispheric lateralization and organization of the visuospatial attentional network in persons with schizophrenia. The main findings indicate loss of integrity in the SLF II, associated with loss of asymmetry in participants with schizophrenia, compared with healthy individuals, suggesting a potential substrate of attentional deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elise Leroux
- The Department of Psychiatry, Université de Caen Normandie, Caen, France (Leroux, Dollfus); Université de Paris, LaPsyDÉ, UMR 8240, CNRS, Paris (Poirel); Institut Universitaire de France, Paris (Poirel); Service de Psychiatrie Adulte, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Caen, Caen, France (Dollfus); and the Department of Psychiatry, UFR de Médecine, Université de Caen Normandie, Caen, France (Dollfus)
| | - Nicolas Poirel
- The Department of Psychiatry, Université de Caen Normandie, Caen, France (Leroux, Dollfus); Université de Paris, LaPsyDÉ, UMR 8240, CNRS, Paris (Poirel); Institut Universitaire de France, Paris (Poirel); Service de Psychiatrie Adulte, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Caen, Caen, France (Dollfus); and the Department of Psychiatry, UFR de Médecine, Université de Caen Normandie, Caen, France (Dollfus)
| | - Sonia Dollfus
- The Department of Psychiatry, Université de Caen Normandie, Caen, France (Leroux, Dollfus); Université de Paris, LaPsyDÉ, UMR 8240, CNRS, Paris (Poirel); Institut Universitaire de France, Paris (Poirel); Service de Psychiatrie Adulte, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Caen, Caen, France (Dollfus); and the Department of Psychiatry, UFR de Médecine, Université de Caen Normandie, Caen, France (Dollfus)
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229
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Menegaux A, Meng C, Bäuml JG, Berndt MT, Hedderich DM, Schmitz-Koep B, Schneider S, Nuttall R, Zimmermann J, Daamen M, Zimmer C, Boecker H, Bartmann P, Wolke D, Sorg C. Aberrant cortico-thalamic structural connectivity in premature-born adults. Cortex 2021; 141:347-362. [PMID: 34126289 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2021.04.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2020] [Revised: 02/15/2021] [Accepted: 04/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
Premature birth is associated with alterations in brain structure, particularly in white matter. Among white matter, alterations in cortico-thalamic connections are present in premature-born infants, and they have been suggested both to last until adulthood and to contribute to impaired cognitive functions. To test these hypotheses, 70 very premature-born adults and 67 full-term controls underwent cognitive testing and diffusion-weighted imaging. Each cortical hemisphere was parcellated into six lobes, from which probabilistic tractography was performed to the thalamus. Connection probability was chosen as metric of structural connectivity. We found increased cortico-thalamic connection probability between left prefrontal cortices and left medio-dorsal thalamus and reduced connection probability between bilateral temporal cortices and bilateral anterior thalami in very premature-born adults. Aberrant prefronto- and temporo-thalamic connection probabilities were correlated with birth weight and days on ventilation, respectively, supporting the suggestion that these connectivity changes relate with the degree of prematurity. Moreover, an increase in left prefronto-thalamic connection probability also correlated with lower verbal comprehension index indicating its relevance for verbal cognition. Together, our results demonstrate that cortico-thalamic structural connectivity is aberrant in premature-born adults, with these changes being linked with impairments in verbal cognitive abilities. Due to corresponding findings in infants, data suggest aberrant development of cortico-thalamic connectivity after premature birth with lasting effects into adulthood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aurore Menegaux
- Department of Neuroradiology, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; TUM Neuroimaging Center, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
| | - Chun Meng
- Department of Neuroradiology, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; TUM Neuroimaging Center, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Josef G Bäuml
- Department of Neuroradiology, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; TUM Neuroimaging Center, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Maria T Berndt
- Department of Neuroradiology, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; TUM Neuroimaging Center, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Dennis M Hedderich
- Department of Neuroradiology, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; TUM Neuroimaging Center, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Benita Schmitz-Koep
- Department of Neuroradiology, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; TUM Neuroimaging Center, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Sebastian Schneider
- Department of Neuroradiology, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; TUM Neuroimaging Center, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Rachel Nuttall
- Department of Neuroradiology, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; TUM Neuroimaging Center, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Juliana Zimmermann
- Department of Neuroradiology, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; TUM Neuroimaging Center, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Marcel Daamen
- Functional Neuroimaging Group, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany; Department of Neonatology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - Claus Zimmer
- Department of Neuroradiology, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; TUM Neuroimaging Center, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Henning Boecker
- Functional Neuroimaging Group, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - Peter Bartmann
- Department of Neonatology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - Dieter Wolke
- Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK; Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
| | - Christian Sorg
- Department of Neuroradiology, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; TUM Neuroimaging Center, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
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Zhang M, Liu S, Wang S, Xu Y, Chen L, Shao Z, Wen X, Yang W, Liu J, Yuan K. Reduced thalamic resting-state functional connectivity and impaired cognition in acute abstinent heroin users. Hum Brain Mapp 2021; 42:2077-2088. [PMID: 33459459 PMCID: PMC8046054 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25346] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2020] [Revised: 01/05/2021] [Accepted: 01/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
As a critical component of cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical loop in addiction, our understanding of the thalamus in impaired cognition of heroin users (HU) has been limited. Due to the complex thalamic connection with cortical and subcortical regions, thalamus was divided into prefrontal (PFC), occipital (OC), premotor, primary motor, sensory, temporal, and posterior parietal association subregions according to white matter tractography. We adopted seven subregions of bilateral thalamus as regions of interest to systematically study the implications of distinct thalamic nuclei in acute abstinent HU. The volume and resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) differences of the thalamus were investigated between age-, gender-, and alcohol-matched 37 HU and 33 healthy controls (HCs). Trail making test-A (TMT-A) was adopted to assess cognitive function deficits, which were then correlated with neuroimaging findings. Although no significant different volumes were found, HU group showed decreased RSFC between left PFC_thalamus and middle temporal gyrus as well as between left OC_thalamus and inferior frontal gyrus and supplementary motor area relative to HCs. Meanwhile, the higher TMT-A scores in HU were negatively correlated with PFC_thalamic RSFC with inferior temporal gyrus, fusiform, and precuneus. Craving scores were negatively correlated with OC_thalamic RSFC with accumbens, hippocampus, and insula. Opiate Withdrawal Scale scores were negatively correlated with left PFC/OC_thalamic RSFC with orbitofrontal cortex and medial PFC. We indicated two thalamus subregions separately involvement in cognitive control and craving to reveal the implications of thalamic subnucleus in pathology of acute abstinent HU.
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Affiliation(s)
- Min Zhang
- School of Life Science and TechnologyXidian UniversityXi'anShaanxiPeople's Republic of China
- Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging Ministry of EducationXi'anPeople's Republic of China
| | - Shuang Liu
- School of Life Science and TechnologyXidian UniversityXi'anShaanxiPeople's Republic of China
- Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging Ministry of EducationXi'anPeople's Republic of China
| | - Shicong Wang
- School of Life Science and TechnologyXidian UniversityXi'anShaanxiPeople's Republic of China
- Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging Ministry of EducationXi'anPeople's Republic of China
| | - Yan Xu
- School of Life Science and TechnologyXidian UniversityXi'anShaanxiPeople's Republic of China
- Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging Ministry of EducationXi'anPeople's Republic of China
| | - Longmao Chen
- School of Life Science and TechnologyXidian UniversityXi'anShaanxiPeople's Republic of China
- Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging Ministry of EducationXi'anPeople's Republic of China
| | - Ziqiang Shao
- School of Life Science and TechnologyXidian UniversityXi'anShaanxiPeople's Republic of China
- Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging Ministry of EducationXi'anPeople's Republic of China
| | - Xinwen Wen
- School of Life Science and TechnologyXidian UniversityXi'anShaanxiPeople's Republic of China
- Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging Ministry of EducationXi'anPeople's Republic of China
| | - Wenhan Yang
- Department of RadiologySecond Xiangya Hospital, Central South UniversityChangshaChina
| | - Jun Liu
- Department of RadiologySecond Xiangya Hospital, Central South UniversityChangshaChina
| | - Kai Yuan
- School of Life Science and TechnologyXidian UniversityXi'anShaanxiPeople's Republic of China
- Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging Ministry of EducationXi'anPeople's Republic of China
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Chen J, Wensing T, Hoffstaedter F, Cieslik EC, Müller VI, Patil KR, Aleman A, Derntl B, Gruber O, Jardri R, Kogler L, Sommer IE, Eickhoff SB, Nickl-Jockschat T. Neurobiological substrates of the positive formal thought disorder in schizophrenia revealed by seed connectome-based predictive modeling. NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL 2021; 30:102666. [PMID: 34215141 PMCID: PMC8105296 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102666] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2020] [Revised: 04/01/2021] [Accepted: 04/03/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Formal thought disorder (FTD) is a core symptom of schizophrenia, but its neurobiological substrates remain elusive. Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of three meta-analytically defined seeds were correlated to positive and negative symptom dimensions of FTD. RsFC patterns allowed individual prediction of positive FTD symptom severity. These findings generalized to an independent data set. Our study has identified robust neurobiological correlates of positive FTD in schizophrenia.
Formal thought disorder (FTD) is a core symptom cluster of schizophrenia, but its neurobiological substrates remain poorly understood. Here we collected resting-state fMRI data from 276 subjects at seven sites and employed machine-learning to investigate the neurobiological correlates of FTD along positive and negative symptom dimensions in schizophrenia. Three a priori, meta-analytically defined FTD-related brain regions were used as seeds to generate whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) maps, which were then compared between schizophrenia patients and controls. A repeated cross-validation procedure was realized within the patient group to identify clusters whose rsFC patterns to the seeds were repeatedly observed as significantly associated with specific FTD dimensions. These repeatedly identified clusters (i.e., robust clusters) were functionally characterized and the rsFC patterns were used for predictive modeling to investigate predictive capacities for individual FTD dimensional-scores. Compared with controls, differential rsFC was found in patients in fronto-temporo-thalamic regions. Our cross-validation procedure revealed significant clusters only when assessing the seed-to-whole-brain rsFC patterns associated with positive-FTD. RsFC patterns of three fronto-temporal clusters, associated with higher-order cognitive processes (e.g., executive functions), specifically predicted individual positive-FTD scores (p = 0.005), but not other positive symptoms, and the PANSS general psychopathology subscale (p > 0.05). The prediction of positive-FTD was moreover generalized to an independent dataset (p = 0.013). Our study has identified neurobiological correlates of positive FTD in schizophrenia in a network associated with higher-order cognitive functions, suggesting a dysexecutive contribution to FTD in schizophrenia. We regard our findings as robust, as they allow a prediction of individual-level symptom severity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ji Chen
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Brain & Behaviour (INM-7), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany; Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Tobias Wensing
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Medical Faculty, RWTH, Aachen, Germany; JARA Translational Brain Medicine, Aachen, Germany
| | - Felix Hoffstaedter
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Brain & Behaviour (INM-7), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany; Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Edna C Cieslik
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Brain & Behaviour (INM-7), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany; Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Veronika I Müller
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Brain & Behaviour (INM-7), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany; Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Kaustubh R Patil
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Brain & Behaviour (INM-7), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany; Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - André Aleman
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Birgit Derntl
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School, University of Tübingen, Germany
| | - Oliver Gruber
- Section for Experimental Psychopathology and Neuroimaging, Department of General Psychiatry, Heidelberg University, Germany
| | - Renaud Jardri
- Univ Lille, INSERM U1172, Lille Neuroscience & Cognition Centre, Plasticity &SubjectivitY Team & CHU Lille, Fontan Hospital, CURE Platform, Lille, France
| | - Lydia Kogler
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School, University of Tübingen, Germany
| | - Iris E Sommer
- Department of Biomedical Science of Cells and Systems, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Simon B Eickhoff
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Brain & Behaviour (INM-7), Research Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany; Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Thomas Nickl-Jockschat
- Iowa Neuroscience Institute, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, United States; Department of Psychiatry, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, United States.
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232
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Nair A, Jalal R, Liu J, Tsang T, McDonald NM, Jackson L, Ponting C, Jeste SS, Bookheimer SY, Dapretto M. Altered Thalamocortical Connectivity in 6-Week-Old Infants at High Familial Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:4191-4205. [PMID: 33866373 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2020] [Revised: 03/11/2021] [Accepted: 03/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Converging evidence from neuroimaging studies has revealed altered connectivity in cortical-subcortical networks in youth and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Comparatively little is known about the development of cortical-subcortical connectivity in infancy, before the emergence of overt ASD symptomatology. Here, we examined early functional and structural connectivity of thalamocortical networks in infants at high familial risk for ASD (HR) and low-risk controls (LR). Resting-state functional connectivity and diffusion tensor imaging data were acquired in 52 6-week-old infants. Functional connectivity was examined between 6 cortical seeds-prefrontal, motor, somatosensory, temporal, parietal, and occipital regions-and bilateral thalamus. We found significant thalamic-prefrontal underconnectivity, as well as thalamic-occipital and thalamic-motor overconnectivity in HR infants, relative to LR infants. Subsequent structural connectivity analyses also revealed atypical white matter integrity in thalamic-occipital tracts in HR infants, compared with LR infants. Notably, aberrant connectivity indices at 6 weeks predicted atypical social development between 9 and 36 months of age, as assessed with eye-tracking and diagnostic measures. These findings indicate that thalamocortical connectivity is disrupted at both the functional and structural level in HR infants as early as 6 weeks of age, providing a possible early marker of risk for ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aarti Nair
- Department of Psychology, School of Behavioral Health, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA 92354, USA
| | - Rhideeta Jalal
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Janelle Liu
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Tawny Tsang
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Nicole M McDonald
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Lisa Jackson
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Carolyn Ponting
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Shafali S Jeste
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Susan Y Bookheimer
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Mirella Dapretto
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
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233
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Exploring communication between the thalamus and cognitive control-related functional networks in the cerebral cortex. COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2021; 21:656-677. [PMID: 33864195 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-021-00892-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
It has been suggested by multiple studies (postmortem studies, invasive animal studies, and diffusion tensor imaging in the human brain) that the thalamus is important for communication among cortical regions. Many functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, including noninvasive and whole-brain studies, have reported thalamic co-activation with several cognitive control-related cortical systems. This forms a complex network that may be important for advanced cognitive control-related processes, such as working memory and attention. Nevertheless, how the thalamus communicates with the cognitive control-related network in the intact human brain is an essential question and needs further investigation. To address this question, we conducted a study using dynamic functional connectivity analysis and effective connectivity analysis based on fMRI data from young, healthy adult participants. The results showed that the middle thalamus exhibited both high in- and out-degree regarding the complex network related to cognitive control during both rest and task conditions. Furthermore, intrinsic communication via the middle thalamic regions showed dynamically co-varying patterns, and the thalamic regions showed high flexibility in dynamic community analysis. These results indicated that the mid-thalamic region is an important station for communication between nodes in cognitive control-related networks.
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234
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Neumann N, Lotze M, Domin M. Sex-specific association of poor sleep quality with gray matter volume. Sleep 2021; 43:5788209. [PMID: 32140718 DOI: 10.1093/sleep/zsaa035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2019] [Revised: 02/15/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
STUDY OBJECTIVES Previous studies were inconsistent with regard to the association of sleep dysfunction on the brain's gray matter volume (GMV). The current study set out to investigate if there is a moderating effect of sex on the relationship between sleep quality in healthy individuals and GMV. METHODS We applied voxel-based morphometry in 1,074 young adults of the "Human Connectome Project." An analysis of variance with the factors "sleep quality" (good/poor according to the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, cutoff >5) and "sex" (male, female) on GMV was conducted. Additionally, linear relationships between sleep quality and GMV were tested. RESULTS The analysis of variance yielded no main effect for sleep quality, but an interaction between sex and sleep quality for the right superior frontal gyrus. Post hoc t-tests showed that female good sleepers in comparison to female poor sleepers had larger GMV in the right parahippocampal gyrus extending to the right hippocampus (whole-brain family-wise error [FWE]-corrected), as well as smaller GMV in the right inferior parietal lobule (whole-brain FWE-corrected) and the right inferior temporal gyrus (whole brain FWE-corrected). There were no significant effects when comparing male good sleepers to male poor sleepers. Linear regression analyses corroborated smaller GMV in the right parahippocampal gyrus in women with poor sleep quality. CONCLUSIONS Poor sleep quality was associated with altered GMV in females, but not in males. Future studies are needed to investigate the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie the sex differences in the association of sleep quality and brain differences found in this study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicola Neumann
- Institute of Diagnostic Radiology and Neuroradiology, Functional Imaging Unit, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Martin Lotze
- Institute of Diagnostic Radiology and Neuroradiology, Functional Imaging Unit, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
| | - Martin Domin
- Institute of Diagnostic Radiology and Neuroradiology, Functional Imaging Unit, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
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235
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Chen S, Zhang J, Ruan X, Deng K, Zhang J, Zou D, He X, Li F, Bin G, Zeng H, Huang B. Voxel-based morphometry analysis and machine learning based classification in pediatric mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis. Brain Imaging Behav 2021; 14:1945-1954. [PMID: 31250266 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-019-00138-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS) is a common type of pediatric epilepsy. We sought to evaluate whether the combination of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and support vector machine (SVM), a machine learning method, was feasible for the classification of MTLE-HS. Three-dimensional T1-weighted MRI was acquired in 37 participants including 22 with MTLE-HS (16 left, 6 right) and 15 healthy controls (HCs). VBM was used to detect the regions of gray matter volume (GMV) abnormalities. The volumes of these regions were then calculated for each participant and used as the features in SVM. The SVM model was trained and tested with leave-one-out cross validation (LOOCV). We performed VBM-based comparison and SVM-based classification between left HS (LHS) and HC as well as between right HS (RHS) and HC. Both GMV increase and reduction were found in the group comparisons with VBM. Using SVM, we reached an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.870, 0.976 and 0.902 for the classification between LHS and HC, between RHS and HC and between HS and HC respectively. The VBM findings were concordant with the clinical findings. Thus, our proposed method combining VBM findings with SVM, were applicable in the classification of padiatric MTLE-HS with high accuracy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shihui Chen
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China
| | - Jian Zhang
- Health Science Centre, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.,Shenzhen University Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China
| | - Xiaolei Ruan
- Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Lanzhou, Gansu, People's Republic of China
| | - Kan Deng
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.,Shenzhen University Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China
| | - Jianing Zhang
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.,Shenzhen University Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China
| | - Dongfang Zou
- Department of Radiology, Shenzhen Children's Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China
| | - Xiaoming He
- Xiangyang Central Hospital/Affiliated Hospital of Hubei University of Arts and Science, Xiangyang, Hubei, People's Republic of China
| | - Feng Li
- Xiangyang Central Hospital/Affiliated Hospital of Hubei University of Arts and Science, Xiangyang, Hubei, People's Republic of China
| | - Guo Bin
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.,Shenzhen University Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China
| | - Hongwu Zeng
- Department of Radiology, Shenzhen Children's Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
| | - Bingsheng Huang
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China. .,Shenzhen University Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
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236
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Ngo GN, Haak KV, Beckmann CF, Menon RS. Mesoscale hierarchical organization of primary somatosensory cortex captured by resting-state-fMRI in humans. Neuroimage 2021; 235:118031. [PMID: 33836270 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2020] [Revised: 03/19/2021] [Accepted: 03/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The primary somatosensory cortex (S1) plays a key role in the processing and integration of afferent somatosensory inputs along an anterior-to-posterior axis, contributing towards necessary human function. It is believed that anatomical connectivity can be used to probe hierarchical organization, however direct characterization of this principle in-vivo within humans remains elusive. Here, we use resting-state functional connectivity as a complement to anatomical connectivity to investigate topographical principles of human S1. We employ a novel approach to examine mesoscopic variations of functional connectivity, and demonstrate a topographic organisation spanning the region's hierarchical axis that strongly correlates with underlying microstructure while tracing along architectonic Brodmann areas. Our findings characterize anatomical hierarchy of S1 as a 'continuous spectrum' with evidence supporting a functional boundary between areas 3b and 1. The identification of this topography bridges the gap between structure and connectivity, and may be used to help further current understanding of sensorimotor deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Geoffrey N Ngo
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Koen V Haak
- Donders Institute of Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, 6500HB Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Christian F Beckmann
- Donders Institute of Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, 6500HB Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN FMRIB), University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK
| | - Ravi S Menon
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; Centre for Functional and Metabolic Mapping, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
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237
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Wang D, Jorge A, Lipski WJ, Kratter IH, Henry LC, Richardson RM. Lateralized Effect of Thalamic Deep Brain Stimulation Location on Verbal Abstraction. Mov Disord 2021; 36:1843-1852. [PMID: 33818819 DOI: 10.1002/mds.28606] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2020] [Revised: 02/03/2021] [Accepted: 03/11/2021] [Indexed: 01/02/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Regionalized thalamic activity has been implicated in language function, and yet the effect of thalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS) on language-related clinical outcomes is underexplored. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to determine if the location of stimulation within the thalamus correlates with changes in language-related neuropsychological outcomes following DBS for essential tremor. METHODS Thirty patients with essential tremor underwent comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations before and after DBS surgery targeting the ventral intermediate nucleus of the thalamus. Changes in neuropsychological functions were evaluated. The relationships between language-related outcomes and stimulation location were assessed using both categorical and linear methods. Any significant results were further validated using linear discriminant analysis. RESULTS Most neuropsychological functions remained unchanged at the group level. However, outcome on a measure of verbal abstraction was significantly dependent on stimulation location along the anterior-posterior axis within the left ventral lateral thalamus, with anterior stimulation associated with reduced verbal abstraction performance. This result was supported by linear discriminant analysis, which showed that stimulation locations with improved and reduced verbal abstraction function were best separated by a vector nearly parallel to the anterior-posterior axis. No stimulation location dependence was found for verbal abstraction outcome in the right thalamus or for outcomes of other language functions in either hemisphere. CONCLUSION We demonstrate an effect of thalamic DBS on verbal abstraction as a function of left thalamic topography. This finding provides clinical evidence for the lateralization and regionalization of thalamic language function that may be relevant for understanding nonmotor effects of stimulation. © 2021 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dengyu Wang
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.,School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Ahmed Jorge
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Witold J Lipski
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Ian H Kratter
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Luke C Henry
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - R Mark Richardson
- Brain Modulation Lab, Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
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238
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Zheng W, Tan X, Liu T, Li X, Gao J, Hong L, Zhang X, Zhao Z, Yu Y, Zhang Y, Luo B, Wu D. Individualized Thalamic Parcellation Reveals Alterations in Shape and Microstructure of Thalamic Nuclei in Patients with Disorder of Consciousness. Cereb Cortex Commun 2021; 2:tgab024. [PMID: 34296169 PMCID: PMC8152869 DOI: 10.1093/texcom/tgab024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2020] [Revised: 03/25/2021] [Accepted: 03/28/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
The thalamus plays crucial roles in consciousness generation and information processing. Previous evidence suggests that disorder of consciousness (DOC) caused by severe brain injury, is potentially related to thalamic abnormalities. However, how the morphology and microstructure change in thalamic subfields and thalamocortical fiber pathways in patients with DOC, and the relationships between these changes and the consciousness status remain unclear. Here, we generated the individual-specific thalamic parcellation in 10 DOC patients and 10 healthy controls (HC) via a novel thalamic segmentation framework based on the fiber orientation distribution (FOD) derived from 7-Tesla diffusion MRI, and investigated the shape deformation of thalamic nuclei as well as the microstructural changes associated with thalamic nuclei and thalamocortical pathways in patients with DOC. Enlargement of dorsal posterior nucleus and atrophy of anterior nucleus in the right thalamus were observed in DOC cohort relative to the HCs, and the former was closely linked to the consciousness level of the patients. We also found significant reductions of fiber density, but not fiber bundle cross-section, within several thalamic nuclei and most of the thalamocortical fiber pathways, suggesting that loss of axons might take primary responsibility for the impaired thalamocortical connections in patients with DOC rather than the change in fiber-bundle morphology. Furthermore, the individual-specific thalamic parcellation achieved 80% accuracy in classifying patients at the minimally conscious state from the vegetative state, compared with ~60% accuracy based on group-level parcellations. Our findings provide the first evidence for the shape deformation of thalamic nuclei in DOC patients and the microstructural basis of the disrupted thalamocortical connections.
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Affiliation(s)
- Weihao Zheng
- Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, P.R. China
| | - Xufei Tan
- Department of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University City College, Hangzhou, 310015, P.R. China
| | - Tingting Liu
- Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, P.R. China
| | - Xiaoxia Li
- Department of Neurology and Brain Medical Centre, The First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310003, P.R. China
| | - Jian Gao
- Department of Rehabilitation, Hospital of Zhejiang Armed Police Corps, Hangzhou, 310051, P.R. China
| | - Lirong Hong
- Department of Rehabilitation, Hospital of Zhejiang Armed Police Corps, Hangzhou, 310051, P.R. China
| | - Xiaotong Zhang
- Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, Qiushi Academy for Advanced Studies, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310029, P.R. China
| | - Zhiyong Zhao
- Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, P.R. China
| | - Yamei Yu
- Department of Neurology and Brain Medical Centre, The First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310003, P.R. China
| | - Yi Zhang
- Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, P.R. China
| | - Benyan Luo
- Department of Neurology and Brain Medical Centre, The First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310003, P.R. China
| | - Dan Wu
- Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, P.R. China
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239
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Hayashi T, Hou Y, Glasser MF, Autio JA, Knoblauch K, Inoue-Murayama M, Coalson T, Yacoub E, Smith S, Kennedy H, Van Essen DC. The nonhuman primate neuroimaging and neuroanatomy project. Neuroimage 2021; 229:117726. [PMID: 33484849 PMCID: PMC8079967 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117726] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2020] [Revised: 12/13/2020] [Accepted: 01/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Multi-modal neuroimaging projects such as the Human Connectome Project (HCP) and UK Biobank are advancing our understanding of human brain architecture, function, connectivity, and their variability across individuals using high-quality non-invasive data from many subjects. Such efforts depend upon the accuracy of non-invasive brain imaging measures. However, 'ground truth' validation of connectivity using invasive tracers is not feasible in humans. Studies using nonhuman primates (NHPs) enable comparisons between invasive and non-invasive measures, including exploration of how "functional connectivity" from fMRI and "tractographic connectivity" from diffusion MRI compare with long-distance connections measured using tract tracing. Our NonHuman Primate Neuroimaging & Neuroanatomy Project (NHP_NNP) is an international effort (6 laboratories in 5 countries) to: (i) acquire and analyze high-quality multi-modal brain imaging data of macaque and marmoset monkeys using protocols and methods adapted from the HCP; (ii) acquire quantitative invasive tract-tracing data for cortical and subcortical projections to cortical areas; and (iii) map the distributions of different brain cell types with immunocytochemical stains to better define brain areal boundaries. We are acquiring high-resolution structural, functional, and diffusion MRI data together with behavioral measures from over 100 individual macaques and marmosets in order to generate non-invasive measures of brain architecture such as myelin and cortical thickness maps, as well as functional and diffusion tractography-based connectomes. We are using classical and next-generation anatomical tracers to generate quantitative connectivity maps based on brain-wide counting of labeled cortical and subcortical neurons, providing ground truth measures of connectivity. Advanced statistical modeling techniques address the consistency of both kinds of data across individuals, allowing comparison of tracer-based and non-invasive MRI-based connectivity measures. We aim to develop improved cortical and subcortical areal atlases by combining histological and imaging methods. Finally, we are collecting genetic and sociality-associated behavioral data in all animals in an effort to understand how genetic variation shapes the connectome and behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Takuya Hayashi
- Laboratory for Brain Connectomics Imaging, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, 6-7-3 MI R&D Center 3F, Minatojima-minamimachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0047, Japan; Department of Neurobiology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Yujie Hou
- Inserm, Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute U1208, Univ Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Bron, France
| | - Matthew F Glasser
- Department of Neuroscience, Washington University Medical School, St Louis, MO USA; Department of Neuroscience and Radiology, Washington University Medical School, St Louis, MO USA
| | - Joonas A Autio
- Laboratory for Brain Connectomics Imaging, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, 6-7-3 MI R&D Center 3F, Minatojima-minamimachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0047, Japan
| | - Kenneth Knoblauch
- Inserm, Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute U1208, Univ Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Bron, France
| | | | - Tim Coalson
- Department of Neuroscience, Washington University Medical School, St Louis, MO USA
| | - Essa Yacoub
- Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
| | - Stephen Smith
- Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB), Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN), Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Oxford University, Oxford, UK
| | - Henry Kennedy
- Inserm, Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute U1208, Univ Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Bron, France; Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, CAS, Shanghai, China
| | - David C Van Essen
- Department of Neuroscience, Washington University Medical School, St Louis, MO USA
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240
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Johnson A, Bathelt J, Akarca D, Crickmore G, Astle DE. Far and wide: Associations between childhood socio-economic status and brain connectomics. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2021; 48:100888. [PMID: 33453544 PMCID: PMC7811130 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100888] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2020] [Revised: 11/07/2020] [Accepted: 11/16/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies have identified localized associations between childhood environment - namely their socio-economic status (SES) - and particular neural structures. The primary aim of the current study was to test whether associations between SES and brain structure are widespread or limited to specific neural pathways. We employed advances in whole-brain structural connectomics to address this. Diffusion tensor imaging was used to construct whole-brain connectomes in 113 6-12 year olds. We then applied an adapted multi-block partial-least squares (PLS) regression to explore how connectome organisation is associated with childhood SES (parental income, education levels, and neighbourhood deprivation). The Fractional Anisotropy (FA) connectome was significantly associated with childhood SES and this effect was widespread. We then pursued a secondary aim, and demonstrated that the connectome mediated the relationship between SES and cognitive ability (matrix reasoning and vocabulary). However, the connectome did not significantly mediate SES relationships with academic ability (maths and reading) or internalising and externalising behavior. This multivariate approach is important for advancing our theoretical understanding of how brain development may be shaped by childhood environment, and the role that it plays in predicting key outcomes. We also discuss the limitations with this new methodological approach.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy Johnson
- Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Joe Bathelt
- Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom
| | - Danyal Akarca
- Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Gemma Crickmore
- Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Duncan E Astle
- Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
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241
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Toescu SM, Hales PW, Kaden E, Lacerda LM, Aquilina K, Clark CA. Tractographic and Microstructural Analysis of the Dentato-Rubro-Thalamo-Cortical Tracts in Children Using Diffusion MRI. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:2595-2609. [PMID: 33338201 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa377] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The dentato-rubro-thalamo-cortical tract (DRTC) is the main outflow pathway of the cerebellum, contributing to a finely balanced corticocerebellar loop involved in cognitive and sensorimotor functions. Damage to the DRTC has been implicated in cerebellar mutism syndrome seen in up to 25% of children after cerebellar tumor resection. Multi-shell diffusion MRI (dMRI) combined with quantitative constrained spherical deconvolution tractography and multi-compartment spherical mean technique modeling was used to explore the frontocerebellar connections and microstructural signature of the DRTC in 30 healthy children. The highest density of DRTC connections were to the precentral (M1) and superior frontal gyri (F1), and from cerebellar lobules I-IV and IX. The first evidence of a topographic organization of anterograde projections to the frontal cortex at the level of the superior cerebellar peduncle (SCP) is demonstrated, with streamlines terminating in F1 lying dorsomedially in the SCP compared to those terminating in M1. The orientation dispersion entropy of DRTC regions appears to exhibit greater contrast than that shown by fractional anisotropy. Analysis of a separate reproducibility cohort demonstrates good consistency in the dMRI metrics described. These novel anatomical insights into this well-studied pathway may prove to be of clinical relevance in the surgical resection of cerebellar tumors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian M Toescu
- Developmental Imaging and Biophysics Section, UCL-GOS Institute of Child Health, London WC1N 1EH, UK.,Department of Neurosurgery, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London WC1N 3JH, UK
| | - Patrick W Hales
- Developmental Imaging and Biophysics Section, UCL-GOS Institute of Child Health, London WC1N 1EH, UK
| | - Enrico Kaden
- Developmental Imaging and Biophysics Section, UCL-GOS Institute of Child Health, London WC1N 1EH, UK.,Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London, London WC1V 6LJ, UK
| | - Luis M Lacerda
- Developmental Imaging and Biophysics Section, UCL-GOS Institute of Child Health, London WC1N 1EH, UK
| | - Kristian Aquilina
- Department of Neurosurgery, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London WC1N 3JH, UK
| | - Christopher A Clark
- Developmental Imaging and Biophysics Section, UCL-GOS Institute of Child Health, London WC1N 1EH, UK
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242
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Jang SH, Seo JP. Anatomical location of the spinothalamic tract in the subcortical white matter in the human brain: A diffusion tensor imaging study. Clin Anat 2021; 34:736-741. [DOI: 10.1002/ca.23709] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2020] [Revised: 10/29/2020] [Accepted: 12/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Sung Ho Jang
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, College of Medicine Yeungnam University Taegu Republic of Korea
| | - Jeong Pyo Seo
- Department of Physical Therapy College of Health Sciences, Dankook University Cheonan Chungnam Republic of Korea
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243
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Glomb K, Cabral J, Cattani A, Mazzoni A, Raj A, Franceschiello B. Computational Models in Electroencephalography. Brain Topogr 2021; 35:142-161. [PMID: 33779888 PMCID: PMC8813814 DOI: 10.1007/s10548-021-00828-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2020] [Accepted: 02/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Computational models lie at the intersection of basic neuroscience and healthcare applications because they allow researchers to test hypotheses in silico and predict the outcome of experiments and interactions that are very hard to test in reality. Yet, what is meant by “computational model” is understood in many different ways by researchers in different fields of neuroscience and psychology, hindering communication and collaboration. In this review, we point out the state of the art of computational modeling in Electroencephalography (EEG) and outline how these models can be used to integrate findings from electrophysiology, network-level models, and behavior. On the one hand, computational models serve to investigate the mechanisms that generate brain activity, for example measured with EEG, such as the transient emergence of oscillations at different frequency bands and/or with different spatial topographies. On the other hand, computational models serve to design experiments and test hypotheses in silico. The final purpose of computational models of EEG is to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the EEG signal. This is crucial for an accurate interpretation of EEG measurements that may ultimately serve in the development of novel clinical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katharina Glomb
- Connectomics Lab, Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne (CHUV-UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland.
| | - Joana Cabral
- Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
| | - Anna Cattani
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, USA.,Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences 'Luigi Sacco', University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Alberto Mazzoni
- The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy
| | - Ashish Raj
- School of Medicine, UCSF, San Francisco, USA
| | - Benedetta Franceschiello
- Department of Ophthalmology, Hopital Ophthalmic Jules Gonin, FAA, Lausanne, Switzerland.,CIBM Centre for Biomedical Imaging, EEG Section CHUV-UNIL, Lausanne, Switzerland.,Laboratory for Investigative Neurophysiology, Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne (CHUV-UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland
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244
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Contribution of Gray Matter Atrophy and White Matter Damage to Cognitive Impairment in Mildly Disabled Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis Patients. Diagnostics (Basel) 2021; 11:diagnostics11030578. [PMID: 33807060 PMCID: PMC8005138 DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics11030578] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2021] [Revised: 03/17/2021] [Accepted: 03/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Cognitive impairment (CI) is frequently present in multiple sclerosis patients. Despite ongoing research, the neurological substrates have not been fully elucidated. In this study we investigated the contribution of gray and white matter in the CI observed in mildly disabled relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients. For that purpose, 30 patients with RRMS (median EDSS = 2), and 30 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were studied. CI was assessed using the symbol digit modalities test (SDMT) and the memory alteration test. Brain magnetic resonance imaging, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), voxel-based morphometry (VBM), brain segmentation, thalamic vertex analysis, and connectivity-based thalamic parcellation analyses were performed. RRMS patients scored significantly lower in both cognitive tests. In the patient group, significant atrophy in the thalami was observed. Multiple regression analyses revealed associations between SDMT scores and GM volume in both hemispheres in the temporal, parietal, frontal, and occipital lobes. The DTI results pointed to white matter damage in all thalamocortical connections, the corpus callosum, and several fasciculi. Multiple regression and correlation analyses suggested that in RRMS patients with mild disease, thalamic atrophy and thalamocortical connection damage may lead to slower cognitive processing. Furthermore, white matter damage at specific fasciculi may be related to episodic memory impairment.
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245
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Li X, Xia J, Ma C, Chen K, Xu K, Zhang J, Chen Y, Li H, Wei D, Zhang Z. Accelerating Structural Degeneration in Temporal Regions and Their Effects on Cognition in Aging of MCI Patients. Cereb Cortex 2021; 30:326-338. [PMID: 31169867 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhz090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2018] [Revised: 03/06/2019] [Accepted: 03/28/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Age is the major risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and for mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, there is limited evidence about MCI-specific aging-related simultaneous changes of the brain structure and their impact on cognition. We analyzed the brain imaging data from 269 subjects (97 MCI patients and 172 cognitively normal [CN] elderly) using voxel-based morphometry and tract-based spatial statistics procedures to explore the special structural pattern during aging. We found that the patients with MCI showed accelerated age-related reductions in gray matter volume in the left planum temporale, thalamus, and posterior cingulate gyrus. The similar age×group interaction effect was found in the fractional anisotropy of the bilateral parahippocampal cingulum white matter tract, which connects the temporal regions. Importantly, the age-related temporal gray matter and white matter alterations were more significantly related to performance in memory and attention tasks in MCI patients. The accelerated degeneration patterns in the brain structure provide evidence for different neural mechanisms underlying aging in MCI patients. Temporal structural degeneration may serve as a potential imaging marker for distinguishing the progression of the preclinical AD stage from normal aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xin Li
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China.,BABRI Centre, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China
| | - Jianan Xia
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China.,BABRI Centre, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China
| | - Chao Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China.,BABRI Centre, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China.,School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, P. R. China
| | - Kewei Chen
- BABRI Centre, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China.,Banner Alzheimer's Institute, Phoenix, AZ, USA
| | - Kai Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China.,BABRI Centre, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China
| | - Junying Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China.,BABRI Centre, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China.,Institute of Basic Research in Clinical Medicine, China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing, P. R. China
| | - Yaojing Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China.,BABRI Centre, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China
| | - He Li
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China.,BABRI Centre, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China.,Institute of Basic Research in Clinical Medicine, China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing, P. R. China
| | - Dongfeng Wei
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China.,BABRI Centre, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China.,Institute of Basic Research in Clinical Medicine, China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing, P. R. China
| | - Zhanjun Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China.,BABRI Centre, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China
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246
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Chen C, Wang X, Cao S, Zhang J, Wang Z, Pan W, Yang J, Tian Y, Qiu B, Wei Q, Wang K. Thalamocortical Functional Connectivity in Patients With White Matter Hyperintensities. Front Aging Neurosci 2021; 13:632237. [PMID: 33815090 PMCID: PMC8012554 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2021.632237] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2020] [Accepted: 02/23/2021] [Indexed: 01/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Background: White matter hyperintensities (WMH)s is a very common neuroradiological manifestation in the elderly and is an increased risk of dementia and cognitive decline. As we all know, the thalamocortical circuit plays an important part in cognition regulation. However, the role of this circuit in WMHs and its related cognitive deficits is still unclear. Method: Eighty WMH patients and 37 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled in the current study. WMH patients were divided into a mild WMH group (n = 33) and moderate-severe WMH group (n = 47) according to Fazekas scores. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data of all participants were collected for thalamocortical functional connectivity (FC) analysis. The analysis was performed in two steps. First, the whole cerebral cortex was divided into six regions of interest (ROIs), which were used as seeds to investigate the changes of FC with the thalamus. Then, the subregion of the thalamus generated in the previous step was used as the seed for FC analysis with the whole brain. Results: In the first step of FC analysis, it was found that precentral gyrus (PrCG)-interthalamic adhesion (ITA) FC values in moderate-severe WMH group were higher than those in HC and mild WMH groups. However, when compared with the HC group, the increase of PrCG-ITA FC values in mild WMH group was not statistically significant. In the second step of FC analysis, the ITA was set as the seed, and compared with the HC group, the results showed that the FC values of the ITA-medial frontal gyrus (MFG) in mild group and moderate-severe WMH groups were significantly increased. In addition, the FC values in moderate-severe group were significantly higher than those in mild group. Finally, it was also found that FC values (PrCG-ITA and ITA-MFG) were significantly correlated with neuropsychological test results for multiple cognitive functions such as memory, execution and attention in WMH patients. Conclusion: Abnormal thalamocortical FC was closely related with cognitive impairments in WMH patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chen Chen
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China
| | - Xiaojing Wang
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China
| | - Shanshan Cao
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China
| | - Jun Zhang
- Department of Neurology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
| | - Zhiqi Wang
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China
| | - Wen Pan
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China
| | - Jinying Yang
- Laboratory Center for Information Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
| | - Yanghua Tian
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China.,Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China
| | - Bensheng Qiu
- Hefei National Lab for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and the Centers for Biomedical Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
| | - Qiang Wei
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China.,Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China
| | - Kai Wang
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Disorders, Hefei, China.,Collaborative Innovation Center of Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Mental Health, Hefei, China.,The College of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.,Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei, China
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247
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Cassel JC, Pereira de Vasconcelos A. Routes of the thalamus through the history of neuroanatomy. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2021; 125:442-465. [PMID: 33676963 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.03.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2020] [Revised: 02/19/2021] [Accepted: 03/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
The most distant roots of neuroanatomy trace back to antiquity, with the first human dissections, but no document which would identify the thalamus as a brain structure has reached us. Claudius Galenus (Galen) gave to the thalamus the name 'thalamus nervorum opticorum', but later on, other names were used (e.g., anchae, or buttocks-like). In 1543, Andreas Vesalius provided the first quality illustrations of the thalamus. During the 19th century, tissue staining techniques and ablative studies contributed to the breakdown of the thalamus into subregions and nuclei. The next step was taken using radiomarkers to identify connections in the absence of lesions. Anterograde and retrograde tracing methods arose in the late 1960s, supporting extension, revision, or confirmation of previously established knowledge. The use of the first viral tracers introduced a new methodological breakthrough in the mid-1970s. Another important step was supported by advances in neuroimaging of the thalamus in the 21th century. The current review follows the history of the thalamus through these technical revolutions from Antiquity to the present day.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean-Christophe Cassel
- Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Adaptatives, Université de Strasbourg, F-67000 Strasbourg, France; LNCA, UMR 7364 - CNRS, F-67000 Strasbourg, France.
| | - Anne Pereira de Vasconcelos
- Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Adaptatives, Université de Strasbourg, F-67000 Strasbourg, France; LNCA, UMR 7364 - CNRS, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
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248
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Disrupted frontostriatal connectivity in primary insomnia: a DTI study. Brain Imaging Behav 2021; 15:2524-2531. [PMID: 33651331 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-021-00454-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2020] [Revised: 12/28/2020] [Accepted: 01/10/2021] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Dysfunction of the sleep-wake transition is considered to be associated with the pathology of patients with primary insomnia (PI). Previous animal study had reported that brain circuits between the striatum and cortex can regulate sleep-wake transitions. So far, few studies have systematically explored the structural connectivity of the striatum-centered circuits and their potential roles in patients with PI. In this study, we chosen the striatum as the seed and 10 priori target regions as masks to assess the structural connectivity by using seed-based classification with a diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) probabilistic tractography method. Track strengths of the striatum-centered circuits were compared between 22 patients with PI (41.27 ± 9.21 years) and 30 healthy controls (HC) (35.2 ± 8.14 years). Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to measure the sleep quality in all participants. Lower track strengths (left striatum- anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), left striatum- dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), left striatum-Hippocampus, and right striatum-Hippocampus) were observed in patients with PI compared to HC. Additionally, the lower track strengths of brain circuits mentioned above were negatively correlated with PSQI. Taken together, our findings revealed the lower tract strength of frontostriatal circuits in patients with PI and HC, which provided the implications of the system-level structural connections of frontostriatal circuits in the pathology of PI. We suggested that the track strengths of the frontostriatal circuits calculated from DTI can be the potential neuroimaging biomarkers of the sleep quality in patients with PI.
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249
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Worden R, Bennett MS, Neacsu V. The Thalamus as a Blackboard for Perception and Planning. Front Behav Neurosci 2021; 15:633872. [PMID: 33732119 PMCID: PMC7956969 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.633872] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2020] [Accepted: 02/02/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
It has been suggested that the thalamus acts as a blackboard, on which the computations of different cortical modules are composed, coordinated, and integrated. This article asks what blackboard role the thalamus might play, and whether that role is consistent with the neuroanatomy of the thalamus. It does so in a context of Bayesian belief updating, expressed as a Free Energy Principle. We suggest that the thalamus-as-a-blackboard offers important questions for research in spatial cognition. Several prominent features of the thalamus-including its lack of olfactory relay function, its lack of internal excitatory connections, its regular and conserved shape, its inhibitory interneurons, triadic synapses, and diffuse cortical connectivity-are consistent with a blackboard role.Different thalamic nuclei may play different blackboard roles: (1) the Pulvinar, through its reciprocal connections to posterior cortical regions, coordinates perceptual inference about "what is where" from multi-sense-data. (2) The Mediodorsal (MD) nucleus, through its connections to the prefrontal cortex, and the other thalamic nuclei linked to the motor cortex, uses the same generative model for planning and learning novel spatial movements. (3) The paraventricular nucleus may compute risk-reward trade-offs. We also propose that as any new movement is practiced a few times, cortico-thalamocortical (CTC) links entrain the corresponding cortico-cortical links, through a process akin to supervised learning. Subsequently, the movement becomes a fast unconscious habit, not requiring the MD nucleus or other thalamic nuclei, and bypassing the thalamic bottleneck.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Worden
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Max S. Bennett
- Independent Researcher, New York, NY, United States
- Bluecore, New York, NY, United States
| | - Victorita Neacsu
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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250
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Honnorat N, Saranathan M, Sullivan EV, Pfefferbaum A, Pohl KM, Zahr NM. Performance ramifications of abnormal functional connectivity of ventral posterior lateral thalamus with cerebellum in abstinent individuals with Alcohol Use Disorder. Drug Alcohol Depend 2021; 220:108509. [PMID: 33453503 PMCID: PMC7889734 DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2020] [Revised: 12/03/2020] [Accepted: 12/07/2020] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
The extant literature supports the involvement of the thalamus in the cognitive and motor impairment associated with chronic alcohol consumption, but clear structure/function relationships remain elusive. Alcohol effects on specific nuclei rather than the entire thalamus may provide the basis for differential cognitive and motor decline in Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). This functional MRI (fMRI) study was conducted in 23 abstinent individuals with AUD and 27 healthy controls to test the hypothesis that functional connectivity between anterior thalamus and hippocampus would be compromised in those with an AUD diagnosis and related to mnemonic deficits. Functional connectivity between 7 thalamic structures [5 thalamic nuclei: anterior ventral (AV), mediodorsal (MD), pulvinar (Pul), ventral lateral posterior (VLP), and ventral posterior lateral (VPL); ventral thalamus; the entire thalamus] and 14 "functional regions" was evaluated. Relative to controls, the AUD group exhibited different VPL-based functional connectivity: an anticorrelation between VPL and a bilateral middle temporal lobe region observed in controls became a positive correlation in the AUD group; an anticorrelation between the VPL and the cerebellum was stronger in the AUD than control group. AUD-associated altered connectivity between anterior thalamus and hippocampus as a substrate of memory compromise was not supported; instead, connectivity differences from controls selective to VPL and cerebellum demonstrated a relationship with impaired balance. These preliminary findings support substructure-level evaluation in future studies focused on discerning the role of the thalamus in AUD-associated cognitive and motor deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas Honnorat
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Ave., Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA.
| | - Manojkumar Saranathan
- Department of Medical Imaging, University of Arizona College of Medicine, 1501 N. Campbell Ave., Tucson, AZ, 85724, USA.
| | - Edith V Sullivan
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 401 Quarry Rd., Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
| | - Adolf Pfefferbaum
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Ave., Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 401 Quarry Rd., Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
| | - Kilian M Pohl
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Ave., Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 401 Quarry Rd., Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
| | - Natalie M Zahr
- Neuroscience Program, SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Ave., Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 401 Quarry Rd., Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
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