NeuroImage. Clinical
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NeuroImage. Clinical · Jan 2018
White matter alterations and their associations with motor function in young adults born preterm with very low birth weight.
Very low birth weight (VLBW: ≤ 1500 g) individuals have an increased risk of white matter alterations and neurodevelopmental problems, including fine and gross motor problems. In this hospital-based follow-up study, the main aim was to examine white matter microstructure and its relationship to fine and gross motor function in 31 VLBW young adults without cerebral palsy compared with 31 term-born controls, at mean age 22.6 ± 0.7 years. The participants were examined with tests of fine and gross motor function (Trail Making Test-5: TMT-5, Grooved Pegboard, Triangle from Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2: MABC-2 and High-level Mobility Assessment Tool: HiMAT) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). ⋯ The findings in this study may indicate that the associations between motor function and FA are caused by other tracts crossing the CST and CC, and/or by alterations in the periventricular white matter in the centrum semiovale. Some of the associations were in the opposite direction than hypothesized, thus higher FA does not always indicate better function. Furthermore, widespread white matter alterations in VLBW individuals persist into young adulthood.
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NeuroImage. Clinical · Jan 2018
Connectome analysis with diffusion MRI in idiopathic Parkinson's disease: Evaluation using multi-shell, multi-tissue, constrained spherical deconvolution.
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects extensive regions of the central nervous system. In this work, we evaluated the structural connectome of patients with PD, as mapped by diffusion-weighted MRI tractography and a multi-shell, multi-tissue (MSMT) constrained spherical deconvolution (CSD) method to increase the precision of tractography at tissue interfaces. The connectome was mapped with probabilistic MSMT-CSD in 21 patients with PD and in 21 age- and gender-matched controls. ⋯ Finally, probabilistic MSMT-CSD had superior diagnostic accuracy compared with conventional probabilistic SSST-CSD and deterministic SSST-CSD tracking. In conclusion, probabilistic MSMT-CSD detected a greater extent of connectome pathology in patients with PD, including those with cortico-basal ganglia-thalamocortical network disruptions. Connectome analysis based on probabilistic MSMT-CSD may be useful when evaluating the extent of white matter connectivity disruptions in PD.
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NeuroImage. Clinical · Jan 2018
Common and distinct abnormal frontal-limbic system structural and functional patterns in patients with major depression and bipolar disorder.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD) are common severe affective diseases. Although previous neuroimaging studies have investigated brain abnormalities in MDD or BD, the structural and functional differences between these two disorders remain unclear. In this study, we adopted a multimodal approach, combining voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and functional connectivity (FC), to study the common and distinct structural and functional alterations in unmedicated MDD and BD patients. ⋯ We found that both the MDD and BD groups had decreased RSFC between the ACC_L and the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC_L) and that the MDD group had decreased RSFC between the SFG_L and the HIP_L, compared with the healthy controls. Our results revealed that the MDD and BD patients were more similar than different in GMV and RSFC. These findings indicate that investigating the frontal-limbic system could be useful for understanding the underlying mechanisms of these two disorders.
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NeuroImage. Clinical · Jan 2018
Integrated imaging of [11C]-PBR28 PET, MR diffusion and magnetic resonance spectroscopy 1H-MRS in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
To determine the relationship between brain tissue metabolites measured by in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS), and glial activation assessed with [11C]-PBR28 uptake in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ⋯ Integrated PET-MR and 1H-MRS imaging demonstrates associations between markers for neuronal integrity and neuroinflammation and may provide valuable insights into disease mechanisms in ALS.
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NeuroImage. Clinical · Jan 2018
Task-free spectral EEG dynamics track and predict patient recovery from severe acquired brain injury.
For some patients, coma is followed by a state of unresponsiveness, while other patients develop signs of awareness. In practice, detecting signs of awareness may be hindered by possible impairments in the patient's motoric, sensory, or cognitive abilities, resulting in a substantial proportion of misdiagnosed disorders of consciousness. Task-free paradigms that are independent of the patient's sensorimotor and neurocognitive abilities may offer a solution to this challenge. ⋯ Our findings show that spectral amplitude and connectivity track patient recovery in a longitudinal fashion, and these metrics are robust pathophysiological markers that can be used for the automated diagnosis and prognosis of disorders of consciousness. These metrics can be acquired inexpensively at bedside, and are fully independent of the patient's neurocognitive abilities. Lastly, our findings tentatively suggest that the relative preservation of thalamo-cortico-thalamic interactions may predict the later reemergence of awareness, and could thus shed new light on the pathophysiological processes that underlie disorders of consciousness.