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Thompson PA, Watkins KE, Woodhead ZVJ, Bishop DVM. Generalized models for quantifying laterality using functional transcranial Doppler ultrasound. Hum Brain Mapp 2022; 44:35-48. [PMID: 36377321 PMCID: PMC9783456 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2021] [Revised: 10/21/2022] [Accepted: 10/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
We consider how analysis of brain lateralization using functional transcranial Doppler ultrasound (fTCD) data can be brought in line with modern statistical methods typically used in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Conventionally, a laterality index is computed in fTCD from the difference between the averages of each hemisphere's signal within a period of interest (POI) over a series of trials. We demonstrate use of generalized linear models (GLMs) and generalized additive models (GAM) to analyze data from individual participants in three published studies (N = 154, 73 and 31), and compare this with results from the conventional POI averaging approach, and with laterality assessed using fMRI (N = 31). The GLM approach was based on classic fMRI analysis that includes a hemodynamic response function as a predictor; the GAM approach estimated the response function from the data, including a term for time relative to epoch start (simple GAM), plus a categorical index corresponding to individual epochs (complex GAM). Individual estimates of the fTCD laterality index are similar across all methods, but error of measurement is lowest using complex GAM. Reliable identification of cases of bilateral language appears to be more accurate with complex GAM. We also show that the GAM-based approach can be used to efficiently analyze more complex designs that incorporate interactions between tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul A. Thompson
- Department of Experimental PsychologyAnna Watts Building, Radcliffe Observatory QuarterOxfordUK,Present address:
Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (CEDAR)University of WarwickCoventryUK
| | - Kate E. Watkins
- Department of Experimental PsychologyAnna Watts Building, Radcliffe Observatory QuarterOxfordUK
| | - Zoe V. J. Woodhead
- Department of Experimental PsychologyAnna Watts Building, Radcliffe Observatory QuarterOxfordUK
| | - Dorothy V. M. Bishop
- Department of Experimental PsychologyAnna Watts Building, Radcliffe Observatory QuarterOxfordUK
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Petit S, Badcock NA, Woolgar A. Finding hidden treasures: A child-friendly neural test of task-following in individuals using functional Transcranial Doppler ultrasound. Neuropsychologia 2020; 146:107515. [PMID: 32504634 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107515] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2019] [Revised: 05/28/2020] [Accepted: 05/30/2020] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Despite growing interest in the mental life of individuals who cannot communicate verbally, objective and non-invasive tests of covert cognition are still sparse. In this study, we assessed the ability of neurotypical children to understand and follow task instructions by measuring neural responses through functional transcranial Doppler ultrasound (fTCD). We recorded blood flow velocity for the two brain hemispheres of twenty children (aged 9 to 12) while they performed either a language task or a visuospatial memory task, on identical visual stimuli. We extracted measures of neural lateralisation for the two tasks separately to investigate lateralisation, and we compared the left-minus-right pattern of activation across tasks to assess task-following. At the group level, we found that neural responses were left-lateralised when children performed the language task, and not when they performed the visuospatial task. However, with statistically robust analyses and controlled paradigms, significant lateralisation in individual children was less frequent than expected from the literature. Nonetheless, the pattern of hemispheric activation for the two tasks allowed us to confirm task-following in the group of participants, as well as in over half of the individuals. This provides a promising avenue for a covert and inexpensive test of children's ability to follow task instructions and perform different mental tasks on identical stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Selene Petit
- Perception in Action Research Centre, Macquarie University, Australia; Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders (CCD), Australia.
| | - Nicholas A Badcock
- Perception in Action Research Centre, Macquarie University, Australia; Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders (CCD), Australia; School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia
| | - Alexandra Woolgar
- Perception in Action Research Centre, Macquarie University, Australia; Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders (CCD), Australia; Medical Research Council (UK), Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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Badcock NA, Spooner R, Hofmann J, Flitton A, Elliott S, Kurylowicz L, Lavrencic LM, Payne HM, Holt GK, Holden A, Churches OF, Kohler MJ, Keage HAD. What Box: A task for assessing language lateralization in young children. Laterality 2017; 23:391-408. [PMID: 28803507 DOI: 10.1080/1357650x.2017.1363773] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
The assessment of active language lateralization in infants and toddlers is challenging. It requires an imaging tool that is unintimidating, quick to setup, and robust to movement, in addition to an engaging and cognitively simple language processing task. Functional Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound (fTCD) offers a suitable technique and here we report on a suitable method to elicit active language production in young children. The 34-second "What Box" trial presents an animated face "searching" for an object. The face "finds" a box that opens to reveal a to-be-labelled object. In a sample of 95 children (1 to 5 years of age), 81% completed the task-32% with ≥10 trials. The task was validated (ρ = 0.4) against the gold standard Word Generation task in a group of older adults (n = 65, 60-85 years of age), though was less likely to categorize lateralization as left or right, indicative of greater measurement variability. Existing methods for active language production have been used with 2-year-old children while passive listening has been conducted with sleeping 6-month-olds. This is the first active method to be successfully employed with infants through to pre-schoolers, forming a useful tool for populations in which complex instructions are problematic.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas A Badcock
- a ARC Centre for Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Department of Cognitive Science , Macquarie University , North Ryde , New South Wales , Australia
| | - Rachael Spooner
- b Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy , University of South Australia , South Australia , Australia
| | - Jessica Hofmann
- c Cognitive Ageing and Impairment Neurosciences Laboratory, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy , University of South Australia , South Australia , Australia
| | - Atlanta Flitton
- c Cognitive Ageing and Impairment Neurosciences Laboratory, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy , University of South Australia , South Australia , Australia
| | - Scott Elliott
- c Cognitive Ageing and Impairment Neurosciences Laboratory, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy , University of South Australia , South Australia , Australia
| | - Lisa Kurylowicz
- c Cognitive Ageing and Impairment Neurosciences Laboratory, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy , University of South Australia , South Australia , Australia.,d Department of General Paediatrics , University Children's Hospital Bonn , Bonn , Germany
| | - Louise M Lavrencic
- c Cognitive Ageing and Impairment Neurosciences Laboratory, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy , University of South Australia , South Australia , Australia
| | - Heather M Payne
- e Deafness, Cognition, and Language Research Centre , University College London , London , UK.,f Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience , University College London , London , UK
| | - Georgina K Holt
- g Oxford Study of Children's Communication Impairments, Department of Experimental Psychology , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK
| | - Anneka Holden
- g Oxford Study of Children's Communication Impairments, Department of Experimental Psychology , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK
| | - Owen F Churches
- h Brain and Cognition Laboratory , Flinders University , South Australia , Australia
| | - Mark J Kohler
- b Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy , University of South Australia , South Australia , Australia
| | - Hannah A D Keage
- c Cognitive Ageing and Impairment Neurosciences Laboratory, School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy , University of South Australia , South Australia , Australia
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Malojcic B, Giannakopoulos P, Sorond FA, Azevedo E, Diomedi M, Oblak JP, Carraro N, Boban M, Olah L, Schreiber SJ, Pavlovic A, Garami Z, Bornstein NM, Rosengarten B. Ultrasound and dynamic functional imaging in vascular cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. BMC Med 2017; 15:27. [PMID: 28178960 PMCID: PMC5299782 DOI: 10.1186/s12916-017-0799-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2016] [Accepted: 01/21/2017] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The vascular contributions to neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation may be assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasonography (US). This review summarises the methodology for these widely available, safe and relatively low cost tools and analyses recent work highlighting their potential utility as biomarkers for differentiating subtypes of cognitive impairment and dementia, tracking disease progression and evaluating response to treatment in various neurocognitive disorders. METHODS At the 9th International Congress on Vascular Dementia (Ljubljana, Slovenia, October 2015) a writing group of experts was formed to review the evidence on the utility of US and arterial spin labelling (ASL) as neurophysiological markers of normal ageing, vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Original articles, systematic literature reviews, guidelines and expert opinions published until September 2016 were critically analysed to summarise existing evidence, indicate gaps in current knowledge and, when appropriate, suggest standards of use for the most widely used US and ASL applications. RESULTS Cerebral hypoperfusion has been linked to cognitive decline either as a risk or an aggravating factor. Hypoperfusion as a consequence of microangiopathy, macroangiopathy or cardiac dysfunction can promote or accelerate neurodegeneration, blood-brain barrier disruption and neuroinflammation. US can evaluate the cerebrovascular tree for pathological structure and functional changes contributing to cerebral hypoperfusion. Microvascular pathology and hypoperfusion at the level of capillaries and small arterioles can also be assessed by ASL, an MRI signal. Despite increasing evidence supporting the utility of these methods in detection of microvascular pathology, cerebral hypoperfusion, neurovascular unit dysfunction and, most importantly, disease progression, incomplete standardisation and missing validated cut-off values limit their use in daily routine. CONCLUSIONS US and ASL are promising tools with excellent temporal resolution, which will have a significant impact on our understanding of the vascular contributions to VCI and AD and may also be relevant for assessing future prevention and therapeutic strategies for these conditions. Our work provides recommendations regarding the use of non-invasive imaging techniques to investigate the functional consequences of vascular burden in dementia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Branko Malojcic
- Department of Neurology, University Hospital Center Zagreb, Zagreb School of Medicine, Kispaticeva 12, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia.
| | | | - Farzaneh A Sorond
- Department of Neurology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Elsa Azevedo
- Department of Neurology, São João Hospital Center and Faculty of Medicine of University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
| | - Marina Diomedi
- Cerebrovascular Disease Center, Stroke Unit, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy
| | - Janja Pretnar Oblak
- Department of Vascular Neurology and Intensive Therapy, University Medical Center Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Nicola Carraro
- Department of Medical Sciences, Clinical Neurology-Stroke Unit, University Hospital, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | - Marina Boban
- Department of Neurology, University Hospital Center Zagreb, Zagreb School of Medicine, Kispaticeva 12, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Laszlo Olah
- Department of Neurology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
| | - Stephan J Schreiber
- Department of Neurology, Charite - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Aleksandra Pavlovic
- Neurology Clinic, Clinical Center of Serbia, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
| | - Zsolt Garami
- Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Nantan M Bornstein
- Neurology Department, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Centre, Tel Aviv, Israel
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Gutierrez-Sigut E, Daws R, Payne H, Blott J, Marshall C, MacSweeney M. Language lateralization of hearing native signers: A functional transcranial Doppler sonography (fTCD) study of speech and sign production. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2015; 151:23-34. [PMID: 26605960 PMCID: PMC4918793 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2015.10.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2015] [Revised: 10/19/2015] [Accepted: 10/24/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Neuroimaging studies suggest greater involvement of the left parietal lobe in sign language compared to speech production. This stronger activation might be linked to the specific demands of sign encoding and proprioceptive monitoring. In Experiment 1 we investigate hemispheric lateralization during sign and speech generation in hearing native users of English and British Sign Language (BSL). Participants exhibited stronger lateralization during BSL than English production. In Experiment 2 we investigated whether this increased lateralization index could be due exclusively to the higher motoric demands of sign production. Sign naïve participants performed a phonological fluency task in English and a non-sign repetition task. Participants were left lateralized in the phonological fluency task but there was no consistent pattern of lateralization for the non-sign repetition in these hearing non-signers. The current data demonstrate stronger left hemisphere lateralization for producing signs than speech, which was not primarily driven by motoric articulatory demands.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Gutierrez-Sigut
- Deafness, Cognition & Language Research Centre, University College London, United Kingdom.
| | - Richard Daws
- Deafness, Cognition & Language Research Centre, University College London, United Kingdom
| | - Heather Payne
- Deafness, Cognition & Language Research Centre, University College London, United Kingdom; Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, United Kingdom
| | - Jonathan Blott
- Deafness, Cognition & Language Research Centre, University College London, United Kingdom
| | - Chloë Marshall
- UCL Institute of Education, University College London, United Kingdom
| | - Mairéad MacSweeney
- Deafness, Cognition & Language Research Centre, University College London, United Kingdom; Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, United Kingdom
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Badcock NA, Nye A, Bishop DVM. Using functional transcranial Doppler ultrasonography to assess language lateralisation: Influence of task and difficulty level. Laterality 2011; 17:694-710. [PMID: 23098198 PMCID: PMC3483861 DOI: 10.1080/1357650x.2011.615128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [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: 05/27/2011] [Revised: 07/07/2011] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Language is lateralised to the left hemisphere in most people, but it is unclear whether the same degree and direction of lateralisation is found for all verbal tasks and whether laterality is affected by task difficulty. We used functional transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (fTCD) to assess the lateralisation of language processing in 27 young adults using three tasks: word generation (WG), auditory naming (AN), and picture story (PS). WG and AN are active tasks requiring behavioural responses whereas PS is a passive task that involves listening to an auditory story accompanied by pictures. We also examined the effect of task difficulty by a post hoc behavioural categorisation of trials in the WG task and a word frequency manipulation in the AN task. fTCD was used to measure task-dependent blood flow velocity changes in the left and right middle cerebral arteries. All of these tasks were significantly left lateralised: WG, 77% of individuals left, 5% right; AN, 72% left: 4% right; PS, 56% left: 0% right. There were significant positive relationships between WG and AN (r=0.56) as well as AN and PS (r=.76) but not WG and PS (r = -0.22). The task difficulty manipulation affected accuracy in both WG and AN tasks, as well as reaction time in the AN task, but did not significantly influence laterality indices in either task. It is concluded that verbal tasks are not interchangeable when assessing cerebral lateralisation, but that differences between tasks are not a consequence of task difficulty.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas A Badcock
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
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Badcock NA, Holt G, Holden A, Bishop DVM. dopOSCCI: a functional transcranial Doppler ultrasonography summary suite for the assessment of cerebral lateralization of cognitive function. J Neurosci Methods 2011; 204:383-8. [PMID: 22120689 PMCID: PMC3314978 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2011.11.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2011] [Revised: 11/09/2011] [Accepted: 11/12/2011] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
We present a description of a new software package, 'dopOSCCI', which summarises data from experimental studies where functional transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (fTCD) is used to compare hemispheric rates of blood flow in order to assess lateralization of a cognitive process. The software provides a graphical user interface to summarise analogue and digital data collected using Multi-Dop Doppler Ultrasound devices (DWL Multidop T2: manufacturer, DWL Elektronische Systeme, Singen, Germany). The unique aspects of dopOSCCI allow multi-file processing, multi-event marker processing, behavioural and multi-session summaries, image file data visualization, and tab-delimited output files which includes split-half, single-trial summaries and data quality variables. The Matlab based software is available under the GNU GPL license and can be accessed online at https://databank.ora.ox.ac.uk/general/datasets/dopOSCCI, the Oxford University DataBank.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas A Badcock
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
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