Selective vulnerability of hippocampal sub-regions in patients with subcortical vascular mild cognitive impairment
AbstractEarly diagnosis of subcortical vascular mild cognitive impairment (svMCI) is clinically essential because it is the most reversible subtype of all cognitive impairments. Since structural alterations of hippocampal sub-regions have been well studied in neurodegenerative diseases with pathophysiological cognitive impairments, we were eager to determine whether there is a selective vulnerability of hippocampal sub-fields in patients with svMCI. Our study included 34 svMCI patients and 34 normal controls (NCs), with analysis of T1 images and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores. Gray matter volume (GMV) of hippo...
Source: Brain Imaging and Behavior - April 20, 2024 Category: Neurology Source Type: research
Multimodal 7T imaging reveals enhanced functional coupling between salience and frontoparietal networks in young adult tobacco cigarette smokers
AbstractTobacco cigarette smoking is associated with disrupted brain network dynamics in resting brain networks including the Salience (SN) and Fronto parietal (FPN). Unified multimodal methods [Resting state connectivity analysis, Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI), and cortical thickness analysis] were employed to test the hypothesis that the impact of cigarette smoking on the balance among these networks is due to alterations in white matter connectivity, microstructural architecture, functional connectivity and cortical thickness (CT) and that these metrics define...
Source: Brain Imaging and Behavior - April 19, 2024 Category: Neurology Source Type: research
Brain imaging of a gamified cognitive flexibility task in young and older adults
AbstractThe study aimed to develop and validate a gamified cognitive flexibility task through brain imaging, and to investigate behavioral and brain activation differences between young and older adults during task performance. Thirty-one young adults (aged 18 –35) and 31 older adults (aged 60–80) were included in the present study. All participants underwent fMRI scans while completing the gamified cognitive flexibility task. Results showed that young adults outperformed older adults on the task. The left inferior frontal junction (IFJ), a key region of cognitive flexibility, was significantly activated during the tas...
Source: Brain Imaging and Behavior - April 17, 2024 Category: Neurology Source Type: research
Identification of abnormal closed-loop pathways in patients with MRI-negative pharmacoresistant epilepsy
AbstractEpilepsy is a disorder of brain networks, that is usually combined with cognitive and emotional impairment. However, most of the current research on closed-loop pathways in epilepsy is limited to the neuronal level or has focused only on known closed-loop pathways, and studies on abnormalities in closed-loop pathways in epilepsy at the whole-brain network level are lacking. A total of 26 patients with magnetic resonance imaging-negative pharmacoresistant epilepsy (MRIneg-PRE) and 26 healthy controls (HCs) were included in this study. Causal brain networks and temporal-lag brain networks were constructed from restin...
Source: Brain Imaging and Behavior - April 9, 2024 Category: Neurology Source Type: research
The relationship between alcohol consumption and amygdala volume in a community-based sample
AbstractMost prior studies have reported decreased amygdala volume in those with a history of alcohol use disorder. Decreased amygdala volume associated with alcohol use disorder may be related to an increased risk of addiction and relapse. However, the relationship between amygdala volume and a broad range of alcohol consumption is largely unexplored. The present cross-sectional analysis investigates the relationship between amygdala volume and self-reported alcohol consumption in participants of the Dallas Heart Study, a community-based study of Dallas County, Texas residents. Brain imaging and survey data from partic...
Source: Brain Imaging and Behavior - April 3, 2024 Category: Neurology Source Type: research
Sleep disturbances, altered brain microstructure and chronic headache in youth
AbstractChronic headache (persistent or recurrent headache for 3-months or longer) is highly prevalent among youth. While sleep disturbances have been associated with headache, their inter-relationship with brain connectivity remains unknown. This observational study examined whether self-report and actigraphy measures of sleep were associated with alterations to white matter tracts (i.e., uncinate fasciculus and cingulum) in youth with chronic headache versus healthy controls. Thirty youth aged 10 –18 years with chronic headache and thirty controls underwent an MRI. Diffusion tensor images were obtained and mean fractio...
Source: Brain Imaging and Behavior - April 1, 2024 Category: Neurology Source Type: research
Acute effects of high-intensity exercise on brain mechanical properties and cognitive function
AbstractPrevious studies have shown that engagement in even a single session of exercise can improve cognitive performance in the short term. However, the underlying physiological mechanisms contributing to this effect are still being studied. Recently, with improvements to advanced quantitative neuroimaging techniques, brain tissue mechanical properties can be sensitively and noninvasively measured with magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) and regional brain mechanical properties have been shown to reflect individual cognitive performance. Here we assess brain mechanical properties before and immediately after engagement...
Source: Brain Imaging and Behavior - March 28, 2024 Category: Neurology Source Type: research
Associating white matter microstructural integrity and improvements in reactive stepping in people with Parkinson ’s Disease
This study investigated white-matter correlates of responsiveness to reactive step training in PwPD. In an eighteen-week multiple-baseline study, participants (n = 22) underwent baseline assessments (B1 and B2 two-weeks apart), a two-week training protocol, and post-training assessments immediately (P1) and two-months (P2) post-training. Assessments involved three backward reactive step trials, measuring anterior–posterior margin of stability (AP MOS) , step length, and step latency. Tract-Based Spatial Statistics correlated white-matter integrity (fractional anisotropy (FA) and radial diffusivity (RD)) with retaine...
Source: Brain Imaging and Behavior - March 26, 2024 Category: Neurology Source Type: research
Mapping the unique neural engagement in deaf individuals during picture, word, and sign language processing: fMRI study
AbstractEmploying functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of neural responses during sign language, picture, and word processing tasks in a cohort of 35 deaf participants and contrasted these responses with those of 35 hearing counterparts. Our voxel-based analysis unveiled distinct patterns of brain activation during language processing tasks. Deaf individuals exhibited robust bilateral activation in the superior temporal regions during sign language processing, signifying the profound neural adaptations associated with sign comprehension. Similarly, during picture pr...
Source: Brain Imaging and Behavior - March 25, 2024 Category: Neurology Source Type: research
A pilot study to assess blood-brain barrier permeability in long COVID
AbstractThe etiology of brain fog associated with long COVID is not clear. Based on some preliminary work, disruption of the blood-brain barrier has been hypothesized, but has not been tested in patients with long COVID. In this case-control pilot study, we evaluated blood-brain barrier permeability in patients with long COVID and subjective memory loss or brain fog. We used 99 m Technetium diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) to measure blood-brain barrier permeability and a telephone assessment (T-cog) to measure cognitive function. The blood-brain barrier permeability w...
Source: Brain Imaging and Behavior - March 23, 2024 Category: Neurology Source Type: research
Alterations in degree centrality and functional connectivity in tension-type headache: a resting-state fMRI study
AbstractPrevious studies have provided evidence of structural and functional changes in the brains of patients with tension-type headache (TTH). However, investigations of functional connectivity alterations in TTH have been inconclusive. The present study aimed to investigate abnormal intrinsic functional connectivity patterns in patients with TTH through the voxel-wise degree centrality (DC) method as well as functional connectivity (FC) analysis. A total of 33 patients with TTH and 30 healthy controls (HCs) underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scanning and were enrolled in the final st...
Source: Brain Imaging and Behavior - March 21, 2024 Category: Neurology Source Type: research
Lack of effects of eight-week left dorsolateral prefrontal theta burst stimulation on white matter macro/microstructure and connection in autism
In conclusion, we did not find a significant impact of left DLPFC cTBS on white matter macro/microstructure and connections in children and emerging adults with autism. These findings need to be interpreted in the context that the current intellectually able cohort in a single university hospital site limits the generalizability. Future studies are required to investigate if higher stimulation intensities and/or doses, other personal factors, or rTMS parameters might confer significant brain structural changes visible on MRI in ASD. (Source: Brain Imaging and Behavior)
Source: Brain Imaging and Behavior - March 16, 2024 Category: Neurology Source Type: research
Effects of second language acquisition on brain functional networks at different developmental stages
AbstractPrevious studies have shown that language acquisition influences both the structure and function of the brain. However, whether the acquisition of a second language at different periods of life alters functional network organization in different ways remains unclear. Here, functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 27 English-speaking monolingual controls and 52 Spanish –English bilingual individuals, including 22 early bilinguals who began learning a second language before the age of ten and 30 late bilinguals who started learning a second language at age fourteen or later, were collected from the OpenNeuro...
Source: Brain Imaging and Behavior - March 16, 2024 Category: Neurology Source Type: research
Parkinson ’s disease CA2-CA3 hippocampal atrophy is accompanied by increased cholinergic innervation in patients with normal cognition but not in patients with mild cognitive impairment
AbstractAlthough brain cholinergic denervation has been largely associated with cognitive decline in patients with Parkinson ’s disease (PD), new evidence suggests that cholinergic upregulation occurs in the hippocampus of PD patients without cognitive deficits. The specific hippocampal sectors and potential mechanisms of this cholinergic compensatory process have been further studied here, using MRI volumetry and morph ometry coupled with molecular imaging using the PET radiotracer [18F]-Fluoroethoxybenzovesamicol ([18F]-FEOBV). Following a thorough screening procedure, 18 participants were selected and evenly distribut...
Source: Brain Imaging and Behavior - March 13, 2024 Category: Neurology Source Type: research
Interleukin-6 is correlated with amygdala volume and depression severity in adolescents and young adults with first-episode major depressive disorder
This study suggests that inflammation is an underlying neurobiological change and implies that IL-6 could serve as a potential biomarker f or identifying early stage MDD in adolescents and young adults. (Source: Brain Imaging and Behavior)
Source: Brain Imaging and Behavior - March 12, 2024 Category: Neurology Source Type: research
