Impact of white matter hyperintensities on structural connectivity and cognition in cognitively intact ADNI participants

Neurobiol Aging. 2024 Mar;135:79-90. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2023.10.012. Epub 2023 Dec 12.ABSTRACTWe used indirect brain mapping with virtual lesion tractography to test the hypothesis that the extent of white matter tract disconnection due to white matter hyperintensities (WMH) is associated with corresponding tract-specific cognitive performance decrements. To estimate tract disconnection, WMH masks were extracted from FLAIR MRI data of 481 cognitively intact participants in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) and used as regions of avoidance for fiber tracking in diffusion MRI data from 50 healthy young participants from the Human Connectome Project. Estimated tract disconnection in the right inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, right frontal aslant tract, and right superior longitudinal fasciculus mediated the effects of WMH volume on executive function. Estimated tract disconnection in the left uncinate fasciculus mediated the effects of WMH volume on memory and in the right frontal aslant tract on language. In a subset of ADNI control participants with amyloid data, positive status increased the probability of periventricular WMH and moderated the relationship between WMH burden and tract disconnection in executive function performance.PMID:38262221 | DOI:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2023.10.012

Source: Neurobiology of Aging - January 23, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Mohammad Taghvaei Dawn J Mechanic-Hamilton Shokufeh Sadaghiani Banafsheh Shakibajahromi Sudipto Dolui Sandhitsu Das Christopher Brown William Tackett Pulkit Khandelwal Philip Cook Russell T Shinohara Paul Yushkevich Danielle S Bassett David A Wolk John A Source Type: research