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Peng L, Su J, Hu D, Yu Y, Wei H, Li M. Measuring functional connectivity in frequency-domain helps to better characterize brain function. Hum Brain Mapp 2024; 45:e26726. [PMID: 38949487 PMCID: PMC11215841 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26726] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2023] [Revised: 03/25/2024] [Accepted: 05/09/2024] [Indexed: 07/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Resting-state functional connectivity (FC) is widely used in multivariate pattern analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), including identifying the locations of putative brain functional borders, predicting individual phenotypes, and diagnosing clinical mental diseases. However, limited attention has been paid to the analysis of functional interactions from a frequency perspective. In this study, by contrasting coherence-based and correlation-based FC with two machine learning tasks, we observed that measuring FC in the frequency domain helped to identify finer functional subregions and achieve better pattern discrimination capability relative to the temporal correlation. This study has proven the feasibility of coherence in the analysis of fMRI, and the results indicate that modeling functional interactions in the frequency domain may provide richer information than that in the time domain, which may provide a new perspective on the analysis of functional neuroimaging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Limin Peng
- College of Intelligence Science and TechnologyNational University of Defense TechnologyChangshaChina
| | - Jianpo Su
- College of Intelligence Science and TechnologyNational University of Defense TechnologyChangshaChina
| | - Dewen Hu
- College of Intelligence Science and TechnologyNational University of Defense TechnologyChangshaChina
| | - Yang Yu
- College of Intelligence Science and TechnologyNational University of Defense TechnologyChangshaChina
| | - Huilin Wei
- Systems Engineering InstituteAcademy of Military SciencesBeijingChina
| | - Ming Li
- College of Intelligence Science and TechnologyNational University of Defense TechnologyChangshaChina
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2
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Del Mauro G, Li Y, Wang Z. Global brain connectivity: Test-retest stability and association with biological and neurocognitive variables. J Neurosci Methods 2024; 409:110205. [PMID: 38914376 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2024.110205] [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: 01/08/2024] [Revised: 06/03/2024] [Accepted: 06/21/2024] [Indexed: 06/26/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Global brain connectivity (GBC) enables measuring brain regions' functional connectivity strength at rest by computing the average correlation between each brain voxel's time-series and that of all other voxels. NEW METHOD We used resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) data of young adult participants from the Human Connectome Project (HCP) dataset to explore the test-retest stability of GBC, the brain regions with higher or lower GBC, as well as the associations of this measure with age, sex, and fluid intelligence. GBC was computed by considering separately the positive and negative correlation coefficients (positive GBC and negative GBC). RESULTS Test-retest stability was higher for positive compared to negative GBC. Areas with higher GBC were located in the default mode network, insula, and visual areas, while regions with lower GBC were in subcortical regions, temporal cortex, and cerebellum. Higher age was related to global reduction of positive GBC. Males displayed higher positive GBC in the whole brain. Fluid intelligence was associated to increased positive GBC in fronto-parietal, occipital and temporal regions. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHOD Compared to previous works, this study adopted a larger sample size and tested GBC stability using data from different rs-fMRI sessions. Moreover, these associations were examined by testing positive and negative GBC separately. CONCLUSIONS Lower stability for negative compared to positive GBC suggests that negative correlations may reflect less stable couplings between brain regions. Our findings indicate a greater importance of positive compared to negative GBC for the associations of functional connectivity strength with biological and neurocognitive variables.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gianpaolo Del Mauro
- Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 670 W Baltimore St, HSF III, Baltimore, MD 21202, United States
| | - Yiran Li
- Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 670 W Baltimore St, HSF III, Baltimore, MD 21202, United States
| | - Ze Wang
- Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 670 W Baltimore St, HSF III, Baltimore, MD 21202, United States.
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3
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Chen J, Bayanagari VL, Chung S, Wang Y, Lui YW. Deep learning with diffusion MRI as in vivo microscope reveals sex-related differences in human white matter microstructure. Sci Rep 2024; 14:9835. [PMID: 38744901 PMCID: PMC11094063 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-60340-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2023] [Accepted: 04/22/2024] [Indexed: 05/16/2024] Open
Abstract
Biological sex is a crucial variable in neuroscience studies where sex differences have been documented across cognitive functions and neuropsychiatric disorders. While gross statistical differences have been previously documented in macroscopic brain structure such as cortical thickness or region size, less is understood about sex-related cellular-level microstructural differences which could provide insight into brain health and disease. Studying these microstructural differences between men and women paves the way for understanding brain disorders and diseases that manifest differently in different sexes. Diffusion MRI is an important in vivo, non-invasive methodology that provides a window into brain tissue microstructure. Our study develops multiple end-to-end classification models that accurately estimates the sex of a subject using volumetric diffusion MRI data and uses these models to identify white matter regions that differ the most between men and women. 471 male and 560 female healthy subjects (age range, 22-37 years) from the Human Connectome Project are included. Fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity and mean kurtosis are used to capture brain tissue microstructure characteristics. Diffusion parametric maps are registered to a standard template to reduce bias that can arise from macroscopic anatomical differences like brain size and contour. This study employ three major model architectures: 2D convolutional neural networks, 3D convolutional neural networks and Vision Transformer (with self-supervised pretraining). Our results show that all 3 models achieve high sex classification performance (test AUC 0.92-0.98) across all diffusion metrics indicating definitive differences in white matter tissue microstructure between males and females. We further use complementary model architectures to inform about the pattern of detected microstructural differences and the influence of short-range versus long-range interactions. Occlusion analysis together with Wilcoxon signed-rank test is used to determine which white matter regions contribute most to sex classification. The results indicate that sex-related differences manifest in both local features as well as global features / longer-distance interactions of tissue microstructure. Our highly consistent findings across models provides new insight supporting differences between male and female brain cellular-level tissue organization particularly in the central white matter.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junbo Chen
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, 370 Jay Street, 9th Floor, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, USA.
| | - Vara Lakshmi Bayanagari
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, 370 Jay Street, 9th Floor, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, USA
| | - Sohae Chung
- Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research (CAI2R), Department of Radiology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
- Bernard and Irene Schwartz Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - Yao Wang
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, 370 Jay Street, 9th Floor, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY, USA
| | - Yvonne W Lui
- Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research (CAI2R), Department of Radiology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
- Bernard and Irene Schwartz Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
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4
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Kingsford O, Yehya M, Zieman G, Knievel KL. Can Long-Term Outcomes of Posttraumatic Headache be Predicted? Curr Pain Headache Rep 2024:10.1007/s11916-024-01254-2. [PMID: 38713368 DOI: 10.1007/s11916-024-01254-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/31/2024] [Indexed: 05/08/2024]
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW Headache is one of the most common symptoms of traumatic brain injury, and it is more common in patients with mild, rather than moderate or severe, traumatic brain injury. Posttraumatic headache can be the most persistent symptom of traumatic brain injury. In this article, we review the current understanding of posttraumatic headache, summarize the current knowledge of its pathophysiology and treatment, and review the research regarding predictors of long-term outcomes. RECENT FINDINGS To date, posttraumatic headache has been treated based on the semiology of the primary headache disorder that it most resembles, but the pathophysiology is likely to be different, and the long-term prognosis differs as well. No models exist to predict long-term outcomes, and few studies have highlighted risk factors for the development of acute and persistent posttraumatic headaches. Further research is needed to elucidate the pathophysiology and identify specific treatments for posttraumatic headache to be able to predict long-term outcomes. In addition, the effect of managing comorbid traumatic brain injury symptoms on posttraumatic headache management should be further studied. Posttraumatic headache can be a persistent symptom of traumatic brain injury, especially mild traumatic brain injury. It has traditionally been treated based on the semiology of the primary headache disorder it most closely resembles, but further research is needed to elucidate the pathophysiology of posttraumatic headache and determine risk factors to better predict long-term outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olivia Kingsford
- Department of Neurology, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, 350 W Thomas Rd, Phoenix, AZ, 85013, USA
| | - Mustafa Yehya
- Department of Neurology, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, 350 W Thomas Rd, Phoenix, AZ, 85013, USA
| | - Glynnis Zieman
- Department of Neurology, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, 350 W Thomas Rd, Phoenix, AZ, 85013, USA
| | - Kerry L Knievel
- Department of Neurology, Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, 350 W Thomas Rd, Phoenix, AZ, 85013, USA.
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5
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Dong D, Pizzagalli DA, Bolton TAW, Ironside M, Zhang X, Li C, Sun X, Xiong G, Cheng C, Wang X, Yao S, Belleau EL. Sex-specific resting state brain network dynamics in patients with major depressive disorder. Neuropsychopharmacology 2024; 49:806-813. [PMID: 38218921 PMCID: PMC10948777 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-024-01799-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2023] [Revised: 01/01/2024] [Accepted: 01/04/2024] [Indexed: 01/15/2024]
Abstract
Sex-specific neurobiological changes have been implicated in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Dysfunctions of the default mode network (DMN), salience network (SN) and frontoparietal network (FPN) are critical neural characteristics of MDD, however, the potential moderating role of sex on resting-state network dynamics in MDD has not been sufficiently evaluated. Thus, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were collected from 138 unmedicated patients with first-episode MDD (55 males) and 243 healthy controls (HCs; 106 males). Recurring functional network co-activation patterns (CAPs) were extracted, and time spent in each CAP (the total amount of volumes associated to a CAP), persistence (the average number of consecutive volumes linked to a CAP), and transitions across CAPs involving the SN, DMN and FPN were quantified. Relative to HCs, MDD patients exhibited greater persistence in a CAP involving activation of the DMN and deactivation of the FPN (DMN + FPN-). In addition, relative to the sex-matched HCs, the male MDD group spent more time in two CAPs involving the SN and DMN (i.e., DMN + SN- and DMN-SN + ) and transitioned more frequently from the DMN + FPN- CAP to the DMN + SN- CAP relative to the male HC group. Conversely, the female MDD group showed less persistence in the DMN + SN- CAP relative to the female HC group. Our findings highlight that the imbalance between SN and DMN could be a neurobiological marker supporting sex differences in MDD. Moreover, the dominance of the DMN accompanied by the deactivation of the FPN could be a sex-independent neurobiological correlate related to depression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daifeng Dong
- Medical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, PR China
- China National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Xiangya), Changsha, Hunan, PR China
| | - Diego A Pizzagalli
- McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Thomas A W Bolton
- Connectomics Laboratory, Department of Radiology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Maria Ironside
- McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, USA
| | - Xiaocui Zhang
- Medical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, PR China
- China National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Xiangya), Changsha, Hunan, PR China
| | - Chuting Li
- Medical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, PR China
- China National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Xiangya), Changsha, Hunan, PR China
| | - Xiaoqiang Sun
- Medical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, PR China
- China National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Xiangya), Changsha, Hunan, PR China
| | - Ge Xiong
- Medical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, PR China
- China National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Xiangya), Changsha, Hunan, PR China
| | - Chang Cheng
- Medical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, PR China
- China National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Xiangya), Changsha, Hunan, PR China
| | - Xiang Wang
- Medical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, PR China
- China National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Xiangya), Changsha, Hunan, PR China
| | - Shuqiao Yao
- Medical Psychological Center, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, PR China.
- China National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Xiangya), Changsha, Hunan, PR China.
| | - Emily L Belleau
- McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
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6
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Sylvester C, Luby J. Gender Differences in the Neurobiology of Childhood Anxiety: The Need for a Developmental Perspective. Am J Psychiatry 2024; 181:262-264. [PMID: 38557143 DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.20240124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/04/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Chad Sylvester
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University, St. Louis
| | - Joan Luby
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University, St. Louis
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7
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Vosberg DE. Sex and Gender in Population Neuroscience. Curr Top Behav Neurosci 2024. [PMID: 38509404 DOI: 10.1007/7854_2024_468] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/22/2024]
Abstract
To understand psychiatric and neurological disorders and the structural and functional properties of the human brain, it is essential to consider the roles of sex and gender. In this chapter, I first define sex and gender and describe studies of sex differences in non-human animals. In humans, I describe the sex differences in behavioral and clinical phenotypes and neuroimaging-derived phenotypes, including whole-brain measures, regional subcortical and cortical measures, and structural and functional connectivity. Although structural whole-brain sex differences are large, regional effects (adjusting for whole-brain volumes) are typically much smaller and often fail to replicate. Nevertheless, while an individual neuroimaging feature may have a small effect size, aggregating them in a "maleness/femaleness" score or machine learning multivariate paradigm may prove to be predictive and informative of sex- and gender-related traits. Finally, I conclude by summarizing emerging investigations of gender norms and gender identity and provide methodological recommendations to incorporate sex and gender in population neuroscience research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel E Vosberg
- Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada.
- Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada.
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8
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Monsma E, Seiler BD. Picture this! Suggested instructions for guiding the Neuroscience of action imagery: A commentary on Krüger et al. (2022). PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2024:10.1007/s00426-024-01949-6. [PMID: 38502230 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-024-01949-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2023] [Accepted: 03/01/2024] [Indexed: 03/21/2024]
Abstract
Our commentary expands the multisensory and modulating factors proposed by Kruger et al.'s (2023) internal models of action imagery and sensory crossovers. We will discuss the essence of imagery experiences as conceptual intersections among sensory, movement and affective properties that require further neuro-anatomical-contextual mapping to better understand the practical application of imagery. Accordingly, we will propose alternative ideas of daisy-chaining and motor imagery systems. The role of imagery speed, and other properties of movement for refining movement and self-regulation will be considered along with sex as a modulating factor in intra-individual abilities to image movement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Monsma
- Physical Education, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
| | - Brian D Seiler
- Learning and Design Strategist, University of Kansas Medical Center, Zamierowski Institute for Experiential Learning, Kansas City, KS, USA.
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9
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Ryali S, Zhang Y, de los Angeles C, Supekar K, Menon V. Deep learning models reveal replicable, generalizable, and behaviorally relevant sex differences in human functional brain organization. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2310012121. [PMID: 38377194 PMCID: PMC10907309 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2310012121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2023] [Accepted: 12/21/2023] [Indexed: 02/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Sex plays a crucial role in human brain development, aging, and the manifestation of psychiatric and neurological disorders. However, our understanding of sex differences in human functional brain organization and their behavioral consequences has been hindered by inconsistent findings and a lack of replication. Here, we address these challenges using a spatiotemporal deep neural network (stDNN) model to uncover latent functional brain dynamics that distinguish male and female brains. Our stDNN model accurately differentiated male and female brains, demonstrating consistently high cross-validation accuracy (>90%), replicability, and generalizability across multisession data from the same individuals and three independent cohorts (N ~ 1,500 young adults aged 20 to 35). Explainable AI (XAI) analysis revealed that brain features associated with the default mode network, striatum, and limbic network consistently exhibited significant sex differences (effect sizes > 1.5) across sessions and independent cohorts. Furthermore, XAI-derived brain features accurately predicted sex-specific cognitive profiles, a finding that was also independently replicated. Our results demonstrate that sex differences in functional brain dynamics are not only highly replicable and generalizable but also behaviorally relevant, challenging the notion of a continuum in male-female brain organization. Our findings underscore the crucial role of sex as a biological determinant in human brain organization, have significant implications for developing personalized sex-specific biomarkers in psychiatric and neurological disorders, and provide innovative AI-based computational tools for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Srikanth Ryali
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
| | - Yuan Zhang
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
| | - Carlo de los Angeles
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
| | - Kaustubh Supekar
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
- Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
- Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
| | - Vinod Menon
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
- Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
- Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
- Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
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10
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Mitchell RHB, Grigorian A, Robertson A, Toma S, Luciw NJ, Karthikeyan S, Mutsaerts HJMM, Fiksenbaum L, Metcalfe AWS, MacIntosh BJ, Goldstein BI. Sex differences in cerebral blood flow among adolescents with bipolar disorder. Bipolar Disord 2024; 26:33-43. [PMID: 37217255 DOI: 10.1111/bdi.13326] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Abnormalities in cerebral blood flow (CBF) are common in bipolar disorder (BD). Despite known differences in CBF between healthy adolescent males and females, sex differences in CBF among adolescents with BD have never been studied. OBJECTIVE To examine sex differences in CBF among adolescents with BD versus healthy controls (HC). METHODS CBF images were acquired using arterial spin labeling (ASL) perfusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 123 adolescents (72 BD: 30M, 42F; 51 HC: 22M, 29F) matched for age (13-20 years). Whole brain voxel-wise analysis was performed in a general linear model with sex and diagnosis as fixed factors, sex-diagnosis interaction effect, and age as a covariate. We tested for main effects of sex, diagnosis, and their interaction. Results were thresholded at cluster forming p = 0.0125, with posthoc Bonferroni correction (p = 0.05/4 groups). RESULTS A main effect of diagnosis (BD > HC) was observed in the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), underlying the left precentral gyrus (F =10.24 (3), p < 0.0001). A main effect of sex (F > M) on CBF was detected in the precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), left frontal and occipital poles, left thalamus, left SLF, and right inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF). No regions demonstrated a significant sex-by-diagnosis interaction. Exploratory pairwise testing in regions with a main effect of sex revealed greater CBF in females with BD versus HC in the precuneus/PCC (F = 7.1 (3), p < 0.01). CONCLUSION Greater CBF in female adolescents with BD versus HC in the precuneus/PCC may reflect the role of this region in the neurobiological sex differences of adolescent-onset BD. Larger studies targeting underlying mechanisms, such as mitochondrial dysfunction or oxidative stress, are warranted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel H B Mitchell
- Department of Psychiatry, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Anahit Grigorian
- Centre for Youth Bipolar Disorder, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Andrew Robertson
- Department of Kinesiology, Research Institute for Aging, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
| | - Simina Toma
- Department of Psychiatry, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Nicholas J Luciw
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Sudhir Karthikeyan
- Centre for Youth Bipolar Disorder, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Henri J M M Mutsaerts
- Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Vrje Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC location VUmc, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Amsterdam Neuroscience, Brain Imaging, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Lisa Fiksenbaum
- Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Arron W S Metcalfe
- Centre for Brain Resilience and Recovery, Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program , Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Bradley J MacIntosh
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Centre for Brain Resilience and Recovery, Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program , Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Benjamin I Goldstein
- Department of Psychiatry, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Centre for Youth Bipolar Disorder, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Department of Pharmacology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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11
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Fenske SJ, Liu J, Chen H, Diniz MA, Stephens RL, Cornea E, Gilmore JH, Gao W. Sex differences in brain-behavior relationships in the first two years of life. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.01.31.578147. [PMID: 38352542 PMCID: PMC10862872 DOI: 10.1101/2024.01.31.578147] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/24/2024]
Abstract
Background Evidence for sex differences in cognition in childhood is established, but less is known about the underlying neural mechanisms for these differences. Recent findings suggest the existence of brain-behavior relationship heterogeneities during infancy; however, it remains unclear whether sex underlies these heterogeneities during this critical period when sex-related behavioral differences arise. Methods A sample of 316 infants was included with resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans at neonate (3 weeks), 1, and 2 years of age. We used multiple linear regression to test interactions between sex and resting-state functional connectivity on behavioral scores of working memory, inhibitory self-control, intelligence, and anxiety collected at 4 years of age. Results We found six age-specific, intra-hemispheric connections showing significant and robust sex differences in functional connectivity-behavior relationships. All connections are either with the prefrontal cortex or the temporal pole, which has direct anatomical pathways to the prefrontal cortex. Sex differences in functional connectivity only emerge when associated with behavior, and not in functional connectivity alone. Furthermore, at neonate and 2 years of age, these age-specific connections displayed greater connectivity in males and lower connectivity in females in association with better behavioral scores. Conclusions Taken together, we critically capture robust and conserved brain mechanisms that are distinct to sex and are defined by their relationship to behavioral outcomes. Our results establish brain-behavior mechanisms as an important feature in the search for sex differences during development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sonja J Fenske
- Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048
- Department of Biomedical Sciences and Imaging, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048
| | - Janelle Liu
- Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048
- Department of Biomedical Sciences and Imaging, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048
| | - Haitao Chen
- Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048
- Department of Biomedical Sciences and Imaging, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048
- David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90025
| | - Marcio A Diniz
- The Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Research Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048
| | - Rebecca L Stephens
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, 27599
| | - Emil Cornea
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, 27599
| | - John H Gilmore
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, 27599
| | - Wei Gao
- Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048
- Department of Biomedical Sciences and Imaging, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048
- David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90025
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Wang X, Huang CC, Tsai SJ, Lin CP, Cai Q. The aging trajectories of brain functional hierarchy and its impact on cognition across the adult lifespan. Front Aging Neurosci 2024; 16:1331574. [PMID: 38313436 PMCID: PMC10837851 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2024.1331574] [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: 11/01/2023] [Accepted: 01/09/2024] [Indexed: 02/06/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction The hierarchical network architecture of the human brain, pivotal to cognition and behavior, can be explored via gradient analysis using restingstate functional MRI data. Although it has been employed to understand brain development and disorders, the impact of aging on this hierarchical architecture and its link to cognitive decline remains elusive. Methods This study utilized resting-state functional MRI data from 350 healthy adults (aged 20-85) to investigate the functional hierarchical network using connectome gradient analysis with a cross-age sliding window approach. Gradient-related metrics were estimated and correlated with age to evaluate trajectory of gradient changes across lifespan. Results The principal gradient (unimodal-to-transmodal) demonstrated a significant non-linear relationship with age, whereas the secondary gradient (visual-to-somatomotor) showed a simple linear decreasing pattern. Among the principal gradient, significant age-related changes were observed in the somatomotor, dorsal attention, limbic and default mode networks. The changes in the gradient scores of both the somatomotor and frontal-parietal networks were associated with greater working memory and visuospatial ability. Gender differences were found in global gradient metrics and gradient scores of somatomotor and default mode networks in the principal gradient, with no interaction with age effect. Discussion Our study delves into the aging trajectories of functional connectome gradient and its cognitive impact across the adult lifespan, providing insights for future research into the biological underpinnings of brain function and pathological models of atypical aging processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiao Wang
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics (Ministry of Education), Institute of Brain and Education Innovation, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Chu-Chung Huang
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics (Ministry of Education), Institute of Brain and Education Innovation, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
- Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Technology, Shanghai, China
- NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science, New York University Shanghai, Shanghai, China
| | - Shih-Jen Tsai
- Brain Research Center, National Yang-Ming Chiao-Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Psychiatry, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
- Division of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming Chiao-Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Ching-Po Lin
- Brain Research Center, National Yang-Ming Chiao-Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Institute of Neuroscience, National Yang-Ming Chiao-Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Education and Research, Taipei City Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Qing Cai
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics (Ministry of Education), Institute of Brain and Education Innovation, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
- Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Technology, Shanghai, China
- NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science, New York University Shanghai, Shanghai, China
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13
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Fu Z, Sui J, Iraji A, Liu J, Calhoun V. Cognitive and Psychiatric Relevance of Dynamic Functional Connectivity States in a Large (N>10,000) Children Population. RESEARCH SQUARE 2024:rs.3.rs-3586731. [PMID: 38260417 PMCID: PMC10802706 DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3586731/v1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2024]
Abstract
Children's brains dynamically adapt to the stimuli from the internal state and the external environment, allowing for changes in cognitive and mental behavior. In this work, we performed a large-scale analysis of dynamic functional connectivity (DFC) in children aged 9 ~ 11 years, investigating how brain dynamics relate to cognitive performance and mental health at an early age. A hybrid independent component analysis framework was applied to the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) data containing 10,988 children. We combined a sliding-window approach with k-means clustering to identify five brain states with distinct DFC patterns. Interestingly, the occurrence of a strongly connected state was negatively correlated with cognitive performance and positively correlated with dimensional psychopathology in children. Meanwhile, opposite relationships were observed for a sparsely connected state. The composite cognitive score and the ADHD score were the most significantly correlated with the DFC states. The mediation analysis further showed that attention problems mediated the effect of DFC states on cognitive performance. This investigation unveils the neurological underpinnings of DFC states, which suggests that tracking the transient dynamic connectivity may help to characterize cognitive and mental problems in children and guide people to provide early intervention to buffer adverse influences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zening Fu
- Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University and Georgia State University
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14
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Wilson JD, Gerlach AR, Karim HT, Aizenstein HJ, Andreescu C. Sex matters: acute functional connectivity changes as markers of remission in late-life depression differ by sex. Mol Psychiatry 2023; 28:5228-5236. [PMID: 37414928 PMCID: PMC10919097 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-023-02158-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2023] [Revised: 06/15/2023] [Accepted: 06/22/2023] [Indexed: 07/08/2023]
Abstract
The efficacy of antidepressant treatment in late-life is modest, a problem magnified by an aging population and increased prevalence of depression. Understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of treatment response in late-life depression (LLD) is imperative. Despite established sex differences in depression and neural circuits, sex differences associated with fMRI markers of antidepressant treatment response are underexplored. In this analysis, we assess the role of sex on the relationship of acute functional connectivity changes with treatment response in LLD. Resting state fMRI scans were collected at baseline and day one of SSRI/SNRI treatment for 80 LLD participants. One-day changes in functional connectivity (differential connectivity) were related to remission status after 12 weeks. Sex differences in differential connectivity profiles that distinguished remitters from non-remitters were assessed. A random forest classifier was used to predict the remission status with models containing various combinations of demographic, clinical, symptomatological, and connectivity measures. Model performance was assessed with area under the curve, and variable importance was assessed with permutation importance. The differential connectivity profile associated with remission status differed significantly by sex. We observed evidence for a difference in one-day connectivity changes between remitters and non-remitters in males but not females. Additionally, prediction of remission was significantly improved in male-only and female-only models over pooled models. Predictions of treatment outcome based on early changes in functional connectivity show marked differences between sexes and should be considered in future MR-based treatment decision-making algorithms.
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Affiliation(s)
- James D Wilson
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Andrew R Gerlach
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Helmet T Karim
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Howard J Aizenstein
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Carmen Andreescu
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
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15
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Dhamala E, Bassett DS, Yeo BTT, Homes AJ. Functional brain networks are associated with both sex and gender in children. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.11.12.566592. [PMID: 38013996 PMCID: PMC10680589 DOI: 10.1101/2023.11.12.566592] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
Sex and gender are associated with human behavior throughout the lifespan and across health and disease, but whether they are associated with similar or distinct neural phenotypes is unknown. Here, we demonstrate that, in children, sex and gender are uniquely reflected in the intrinsic functional connectivity of the brain. Unimodal networks are more strongly associated with sex while heteromodal networks are more strongly associated with gender. These results suggest sex and gender are irreducible to one another not only in society but also in biology.
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16
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Kogler L, Müller VI, Moser E, Windischberger C, Gur RC, Habel U, Eickhoff SB, Derntl B. Testosterone and the Amygdala's Functional Connectivity in Women and Men. J Clin Med 2023; 12:6501. [PMID: 37892639 PMCID: PMC10607739 DOI: 10.3390/jcm12206501] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2023] [Revised: 09/29/2023] [Accepted: 09/30/2023] [Indexed: 10/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The amygdala contains androgen receptors and is involved in various affective and social functions. An interaction between testosterone and the amygdala's functioning is likely. We investigated the amygdala's resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) network in association with testosterone in 94 healthy young adult women and men (final data available for analysis from 42 women and 39 men). Across the whole sample, testosterone was positively associated with the rsFC between the right amygdala and the right middle occipital gyrus, and it further predicted lower agreeableness scores. Significant sex differences appeared for testosterone and the functional connectivity between the right amygdala and the right superior frontal gyrus (SFG), showing higher testosterone levels with lower connectivity in women. Sex further predicted the openness and agreeableness scores. Our results show that testosterone modulates the rsFC between brain areas involved in affective processing and executive functions. The data indicate that the cognitive control of the amygdala via the frontal cortex is dependent on the testosterone levels in a sex-specific manner. Testosterone seems to express sex-specific patterns (1) in networks processing affect and cognition, and (2) in the frontal down-regulation of the amygdala. The sex-specific coupling between the amygdala and the frontal cortex in interaction with the hormone levels may drive sex-specific differences in a variety of behavioral phenomena that are further associated with psychiatric illnesses that show sex-specific prevalence rates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lydia Kogler
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Centre for Mental Health (TüCMH), Medical Faculty, University of Tübingen, Calwerstrasse 14, 72076 Tübingen, Germany;
- German Center for Mental Health (DZPG) Partner Site, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Veronika I. Müller
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine: Brain and Behavior (INM-7), Research Centre Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany; (V.I.M.); (S.B.E.)
- Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Moorenstraße 5, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Ewald Moser
- High-Field MR Center, Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria; (E.M.); (C.W.)
| | - Christian Windischberger
- High-Field MR Center, Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria; (E.M.); (C.W.)
| | - Ruben C. Gur
- Brain Behavior Laboratory and Neurodevelopment and Psychosis Section, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA;
| | - Ute Habel
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany;
- JARA BRAIN Institute I, Translational Brain Medicine, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425 Jülich, Germany
| | - Simon B. Eickhoff
- Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine: Brain and Behavior (INM-7), Research Centre Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany; (V.I.M.); (S.B.E.)
- Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Moorenstraße 5, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Birgit Derntl
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Centre for Mental Health (TüCMH), Medical Faculty, University of Tübingen, Calwerstrasse 14, 72076 Tübingen, Germany;
- German Center for Mental Health (DZPG) Partner Site, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
- LEAD Graduate School and Network, University of Tübingen, Walter-Simon-Straße 12, 72074 Tübingen, Germany
- International Max Planck Research School for the Mechanisms of Mental Function and Dysfunction (IMPRS-MMFD), Otfried-Müller-Str. 27, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
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17
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Amiri S, Arbabi M, Rahimi M, Parvaresh-Rizi M, Mirbagheri MM. Effective connectivity between deep brain stimulation targets in individuals with treatment-resistant depression. Brain Commun 2023; 5:fcad256. [PMID: 37901039 PMCID: PMC10600572 DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcad256] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2023] [Revised: 06/27/2023] [Accepted: 10/06/2023] [Indexed: 10/31/2023] Open
Abstract
The therapeutic effect of deep brain stimulation on patients with treatment-resistant depression is strongly dependent on the connectivity of the stimulation region with other regions associated with depression. The aims of this study are to characterize the effective connectivity between the brain regions playing important roles in depression and further investigate the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of treatment-resistant depression and the mechanisms involving deep brain stimulation. Thirty-three individuals with treatment-resistant depression and 29 healthy control subjects were examined. All subjects underwent resting-state functional MRI scanning. The coupling parameters reflecting the causal interactions among deep brain stimulation targets and medial prefrontal cortex were estimated using spectral dynamic causal modelling. Our results showed that compared to the healthy control subjects, in the left hemisphere of treatment-resistant depression patients, the nucleus accumbens was inhibited by the inferior thalamic peduncle and excited the ventral caudate and the subcallosal cingulate gyrus, which in turn excited the lateral habenula. In the right hemisphere, the lateral habenula inhibited the ventral caudate and the nucleus accumbens, both of which inhibited the inferior thalamic peduncle, which in turn inhibited the cingulate gyrus. The ventral caudate excited the lateral habenula and the cingulate gyrus, which excited the medial prefrontal cortex. Furthermore, these effective connectivity links varied between males and females, and the left and right hemispheres. Our findings suggest that intrinsic excitatory/inhibitory connections between deep brain stimulation targets are impaired in treatment-resistant depression patients, and that these connections are sex dependent and hemispherically lateralized. This knowledge can help to better understand the underlying mechanisms of treatment-resistant depression, and along with tractography, structural imaging, and other relevant clinical information, may assist to determine the appropriate region for deep brain stimulation therapy in each treatment-resistant depression patient.
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Affiliation(s)
- Saba Amiri
- Neuroscience Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Tehran 1983969367, Iran
| | - Mohammad Arbabi
- Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine Research Center Department, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 1419733141, Iran
| | - Milad Rahimi
- Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering Group, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran 1461884513, Iran
| | - Mansour Parvaresh-Rizi
- Neurosurgery Department, Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Tehran 02166509120, Iran
| | - Mehdi M Mirbagheri
- Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering Group, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran 1461884513, Iran
- Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department, Northwestern University, Chicago IL 60611, USA
- Neural Engineering and Rehabilitation Research Center, Tehran 1146733711, Iran
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18
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Lewandowska M, Tołpa K, Rogala J, Piotrowski T, Dreszer J. Multivariate multiscale entropy (mMSE) as a tool for understanding the resting-state EEG signal dynamics: the spatial distribution and sex/gender-related differences. BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN FUNCTIONS : BBF 2023; 19:18. [PMID: 37798774 PMCID: PMC10552392 DOI: 10.1186/s12993-023-00218-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2023] [Accepted: 09/18/2023] [Indexed: 10/07/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The study aimed to determine how the resting-state EEG (rsEEG) complexity changes both over time and space (channels). The complexity of rsEEG and its sex/gender differences were examined using the multivariate Multiscale Entropy (mMSE) in 95 healthy adults. Following the probability maps (Giacometti et al. in J Neurosci Methods 229:84-96, 2014), channel sets have been identified that correspond to the functional networks. For each channel set the area under curve (AUC), which represents the total complexity, MaxSlope-the maximum complexity change of the EEG signal at thefine scales (1:4 timescales), and AvgEnt-to the average entropy level at coarse-grained scales (9:12 timescales), respectively, were extracted. To check dynamic changes between the entropy level at the fine and coarse-grained scales, the difference in mMSE between the #9 and #4 timescale (DiffEnt) was also calculated. RESULTS We found the highest AUC for the channel sets corresponding to the somatomotor (SMN), dorsolateral network (DAN) and default mode (DMN) whereas the visual network (VN), limbic (LN), and frontoparietal (FPN) network showed the lowest AUC. The largest MaxSlope were in the SMN, DMN, ventral attention network (VAN), LN and FPN, and the smallest in the VN. The SMN and DAN were characterized by the highest and the LN, FPN, and VN by the lowest AvgEnt. The most stable entropy were for the DAN and VN while the LN showed the greatest drop of entropy at the coarse scales. Women, compared to men, showed higher MaxSlope and DiffEnt but lower AvgEnt in all channel sets. CONCLUSIONS Novel results of the present study are: (1) an identification of the mMSE features that capture entropy at the fine and coarse timescales in the channel sets corresponding to the main resting-state networks; (2) the sex/gender differences in these features.
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Affiliation(s)
- Monika Lewandowska
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology, Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Gagarina 39 Street, 87-100, Torun, Poland
| | - Krzysztof Tołpa
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology, Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Gagarina 39 Street, 87-100, Torun, Poland
| | - Jacek Rogala
- Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Pasteur 5 Street, 02-093, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Tomasz Piotrowski
- Institute of Engineering and Technology, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Informatics, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Grudziądzka 5 Street, 87-100, Torun, Poland
| | - Joanna Dreszer
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology, Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Gagarina 39 Street, 87-100, Torun, Poland.
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19
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Dhamala E, Rong Ooi LQ, Chen J, Ricard JA, Berkeley E, Chopra S, Qu Y, Zhang XH, Lawhead C, Yeo BTT, Holmes AJ. Brain-Based Predictions of Psychiatric Illness-Linked Behaviors Across the Sexes. Biol Psychiatry 2023; 94:479-491. [PMID: 37031778 PMCID: PMC10524434 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2023.03.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2022] [Revised: 03/27/2023] [Accepted: 03/30/2023] [Indexed: 04/11/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Individual differences in functional brain connectivity can be used to predict both the presence of psychiatric illness and variability in associated behaviors. However, despite evidence for sex differences in functional network connectivity and in the prevalence, presentation, and trajectory of psychiatric illnesses, the extent to which disorder-relevant aspects of network connectivity are shared or unique across the sexes remains to be determined. METHODS In this work, we used predictive modeling approaches to evaluate whether shared or unique functional connectivity correlates underlie the expression of psychiatric illness-linked behaviors in males and females in data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (N = 5260; 2571 females). RESULTS We demonstrate that functional connectivity profiles predict individual differences in externalizing behaviors in males and females but predict internalizing behaviors only in females. Furthermore, models trained to predict externalizing behaviors in males generalize to predict internalizing behaviors in females, and models trained to predict internalizing behaviors in females generalize to predict externalizing behaviors in males. Finally, the neurobiological correlates of many behaviors are largely shared within and across sexes: functional connections within and between heteromodal association networks, including default, limbic, control, and dorsal attention networks, are associated with internalizing and externalizing behaviors. CONCLUSIONS Taken together, these findings suggest that shared neurobiological patterns may manifest as distinct behaviors across the sexes. Based on these results, we recommend that both clinicians and researchers carefully consider how sex may influence the presentation of psychiatric illnesses, especially those along the internalizing-externalizing spectrum.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elvisha Dhamala
- Institute of Behavioral Science, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, Manhasset, New York; Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
| | - Leon Qi Rong Ooi
- Centre for Sleep and Cognition and Centre for Translational Magnetic Resonance Research, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore; N.1 Institute for Health & Institute for Digital Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Integrative Sciences and Engineering Programme, National University of Singapore, Singapore
| | - Jianzhong Chen
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore; N.1 Institute for Health & Institute for Digital Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Integrative Sciences and Engineering Programme, National University of Singapore, Singapore
| | - Jocelyn A Ricard
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
| | | | - Sidhant Chopra
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
| | - Yueyue Qu
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
| | - Xi-Han Zhang
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
| | - Connor Lawhead
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
| | - B T Thomas Yeo
- Centre for Sleep and Cognition and Centre for Translational Magnetic Resonance Research, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore; N.1 Institute for Health & Institute for Digital Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Integrative Sciences and Engineering Programme, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Avram J Holmes
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; Wu Tsai Institute, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; Department of Psychiatry, Brain Health Institute, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey.
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20
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Wang Y, Long H, Zhou Q, Bo T, Zheng J. PLSNet: Position-aware GCN-based autism spectrum disorder diagnosis via FC learning and ROIs sifting. Comput Biol Med 2023; 163:107184. [PMID: 37356292 DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2023.107184] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2022] [Revised: 05/25/2023] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 06/27/2023]
Abstract
Brain function connectivity, derived from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), has enjoyed high popularity in the studies of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis. Albeit rapid progress has been made, most studies still suffer from several knotty issues: (1) the hardship of modeling the sophisticated brain neuronal connectivity; (2) the mismatch of identically graph node setup to the variations of different brain regions; (3) the dimensionality explosion resulted from excessive voxels in each fMRI sample; (4) the poor interpretability giving rise to unpersuasive diagnosis. To ameliorate these issues, we propose a position-aware graph-convolution-network-based model, namely PLSNet, with superior accuracy and compelling built-in interpretability for ASD diagnosis. Specifically, a time-series encoder is designed for context-rich feature extraction, followed by a function connectivity generator to model the correlation with long range dependencies. In addition, to discriminate the brain nodes with different locations, the position embedding technique is adopted, giving a unique identity to each graph region. We then embed a rarefying method to sift the salient nodes during message diffusion, which would also benefit the reduction of the dimensionality complexity. Extensive experiments conducted on Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange demonstrate that our PLSNet achieves state-of-the-art performance. Notably, on CC200 atlas, PLSNet reaches an accuracy of 76.4% and a specificity of 78.6%, overwhelming the previous state-of-the-art with 2.5% and 6.5% under five-fold cross-validation policy. Moreover, the most salient brain regions predicted by PLSNet are closely consistent with the theoretical knowledge in the medical domain, providing potential biomarkers for ASD clinical diagnosis. Our code is available at https://github.com/CodeGoat24/PLSNet.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yibin Wang
- College of Computer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, Zhejiang, China
| | - Haixia Long
- College of Computer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, Zhejiang, China
| | - Qianwei Zhou
- College of Computer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, Zhejiang, China
| | - Tao Bo
- Scientific Center, Shandong Provincial Hospital affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong, China
| | - Jianwei Zheng
- College of Computer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, Zhejiang, China.
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21
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Li C, Li T, Chen Y, Zhang C, Ning M, Qin R, Li L, Wang X, Chen L. Sex differences of the triple network model in children with autism: A resting-state fMRI investigation of effective connectivity. Autism Res 2023; 16:1693-1706. [PMID: 37565548 DOI: 10.1002/aur.2991] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2023] [Accepted: 07/06/2023] [Indexed: 08/12/2023]
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has a pronounced male predominance, but the underlying neurobiological basis of this sex bias remains unclear. Gender incoherence (GI) theory suggests that ASD is more neurally androgynous than same-sex controls. Given its central role, altered structures and functions, and sex-dependent network differences in ASD, the triple network model, including the central executive network (CEN), default mode network (DMN), and salience network (SN), has emerged as a candidate for characterizing this sex difference. Here, we measured the sex-related effective connectivity (EC) differences within and between these three networks in 72 children with ASD (36 females, 8-14 years) and 72 typically developing controls (TCs) (36 females, 8-14 years) from 5 sites of the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange repositories using a 2 × 2 analysis of covariance factorial design. We also assessed brain-behavior relationships and the effects of age on EC. We found significant diagnosis-by-sex interactions on EC: females with ASD had significantly higher EC than their male counterparts within the DMN and between the SN and CEN. The interaction pattern supported the GI theory by showing that the higher EC observed in females with ASD reflected a shift towards the higher level of EC displayed in male TCs (neural masculinization), and the lower EC seen in males with ASD reflected a shift towards the lower level of EC displayed in female TCs (neural feminization). We also found significant brain-behavior correlations and significant effects of age on EC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cuicui Li
- Department of Radiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China
| | - Tong Li
- Department of Radiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China
| | - Ying Chen
- Department of Radiology, Central Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China
| | - Chunling Zhang
- Department of Radiology, Central Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China
| | - Mingmin Ning
- Department of Neurology, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, China
| | - Rui Qin
- Department of Radiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China
| | - Lin Li
- Department of Radiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China
| | - Ximing Wang
- Department of Radiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China
| | - Linglong Chen
- Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
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22
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Stier C, Braun C, Focke NK. Adult lifespan trajectories of neuromagnetic signals and interrelations with cortical thickness. Neuroimage 2023; 278:120275. [PMID: 37451375 PMCID: PMC10443236 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120275] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2023] [Revised: 07/03/2023] [Accepted: 07/11/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Oscillatory power and phase synchronization map neuronal dynamics and are commonly studied to differentiate the healthy and diseased brain. Yet, little is known about the course and spatial variability of these features from early adulthood into old age. Leveraging magnetoencephalography (MEG) resting-state data in a cross-sectional adult sample (n = 350), we probed lifespan differences (18-88 years) in connectivity and power and interaction effects with sex. Building upon recent attempts to link brain structure and function, we tested the spatial correspondence between age effects on cortical thickness and those on functional networks. We further probed a direct structure-function relationship at the level of the study sample. We found MEG frequency-specific patterns with age and divergence between sexes in low frequencies. Connectivity and power exhibited distinct linear trajectories or turning points at midlife that might reflect different physiological processes. In the delta and beta bands, these age effects corresponded to those on cortical thickness, pointing to co-variation between the modalities across the lifespan. Structure-function coupling was frequency-dependent and observed in unimodal or multimodal regions. Altogether, we provide a comprehensive overview of the topographic functional profile of adulthood that can form a basis for neurocognitive and clinical investigations. This study further sheds new light on how the brain's structural architecture relates to fast oscillatory activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina Stier
- Clinic of Neurology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany; Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
| | - Christoph Braun
- MEG-Center, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; CIMeC, Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
| | - Niels K Focke
- Clinic of Neurology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
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23
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Petro NM, Picci G, Embury CM, Ott LR, Penhale SH, Rempe MP, Johnson HJ, Willett MP, Wang YP, Stephen JM, Calhoun VD, Doucet GE, Wilson TW. Developmental differences in functional organization of multispectral networks. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:9175-9185. [PMID: 37279931 PMCID: PMC10505424 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad193] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2023] [Revised: 05/11/2023] [Accepted: 05/17/2023] [Indexed: 06/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Assessing brain connectivity during rest has become a widely used approach to identify changes in functional brain organization during development. Generally, previous works have demonstrated that brain activity shifts from more local to more distributed processing from childhood into adolescence. However, the majority of those works have been based on functional magnetic resonance imaging measures, whereas multispectral functional connectivity, as measured using magnetoencephalography (MEG), has been far less characterized. In our study, we examined spontaneous cortical activity during eyes-closed rest using MEG in 101 typically developing youth (9-15 years old; 51 females, 50 males). Multispectral MEG images were computed, and connectivity was estimated in the canonical delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma bands using the imaginary part of the phase coherence, which was computed between 200 brain regions defined by the Schaefer cortical atlas. Delta and alpha connectivity matrices formed more communities as a function of increasing age. Connectivity weights predominantly decreased with age in both frequency bands; delta-band differences largely implicated limbic cortical regions and alpha band differences in attention and cognitive networks. These results are consistent with previous work, indicating the functional organization of the brain becomes more segregated across development, and highlight spectral specificity across different canonical networks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathan M Petro
- Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, United States
- Center for Pediatric Brain Health, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, United States
| | - Giorgia Picci
- Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, United States
- Center for Pediatric Brain Health, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, United States
- Department of Pharmacology & Neuroscience, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, United States
| | - Christine M Embury
- Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, United States
- Center for Pediatric Brain Health, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, United States
| | - Lauren R Ott
- San Diego State University/University of California San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, San Diego, CA, United States
| | - Samantha H Penhale
- Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Maggie P Rempe
- Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, United States
- College of Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, United States
| | - Hallie J Johnson
- Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, United States
| | - Madelyn P Willett
- Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, United States
| | - Yu-Ping Wang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, United States
| | | | - Vince D Calhoun
- Tri-Institutional Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS), Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States
| | - Gaelle E Doucet
- Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, United States
- Center for Pediatric Brain Health, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, United States
- Department of Pharmacology & Neuroscience, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, United States
| | - Tony W Wilson
- Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, United States
- Center for Pediatric Brain Health, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Boys Town, NE, United States
- Department of Pharmacology & Neuroscience, Creighton University, Omaha, NE, United States
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24
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Cotter DL, Campbell CE, Sukumaran K, McConnell R, Berhane K, Schwartz J, Hackman DA, Ahmadi H, Chen JC, Herting MM. Effects of ambient fine particulates, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone on maturation of functional brain networks across early adolescence. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2023; 177:108001. [PMID: 37307604 PMCID: PMC10353545 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2023.108001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2022] [Revised: 04/14/2023] [Accepted: 05/28/2023] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Air pollution is linked to neurodevelopmental delays, but its association with longitudinal changes in brain network development has yet to be investigated. We aimed to characterize the effect of PM2.5, O3, and NO2 exposure at ages 9-10 years on changes in functional connectivity (FC) over a 2-year follow-up period, with a focus on the salience (SN), frontoparietal (FPN), and default-mode (DMN) brain networks as well as the amygdala and hippocampus given their importance in emotional and cognitive functioning. METHODS A sample of children (N = 9,497; with 1-2 scans each for a total of 13,824 scans; 45.6% with two brain scans) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study® were included. Annual averages of pollutant concentrations were assigned to the child's primary residential address using an ensemble-based exposure modeling approach. Resting-state functional MRI was collected on 3T MRI scanners. First, developmental linear mixed-effect models were performed to characterize typical FC development within our sample. Next, single- and multi-pollutant linear mixed-effect models were constructed to examine the association between exposure and intra-network, inter-network, and subcortical-to-network FC change over time, adjusting for sex, race/ethnicity, income, parental education, handedness, scanner type, and motion. RESULTS Developmental profiles of FC over the 2-year follow-up included intra-network integration within the DMN and FPN as well as inter-network integration between the SN-FPN; along with intra-network segregation in the SN as well as subcortical-to-network segregation more broadly. Higher PM2.5 exposure resulted in greater inter-network and subcortical-to-network FC over time. In contrast, higher O3 concentrations resulted in greater intra-network, but less subcortical-to-network FC over time. Lastly, higher NO2 exposure led to less inter-network and subcortical-to-network FC over the 2-year follow-up period. CONCLUSION Taken together, PM2.5, O3, and NO2 exposure in childhood relate to distinct changes in patterns of network maturation over time. This is the first study to show outdoor ambient air pollution during childhood is linked to longitudinal changes in brain network connectivity development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Devyn L Cotter
- Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Claire E Campbell
- Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Kirthana Sukumaran
- Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Rob McConnell
- Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Kiros Berhane
- Department of Biostatistics, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA
| | - Joel Schwartz
- Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Daniel A Hackman
- USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Hedyeh Ahmadi
- Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Jiu-Chiuan Chen
- Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Neurology, Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Megan M Herting
- Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
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25
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Orlichenko A, Qu G, Zhang G, Patel B, Wilson TW, Stephen JM, Calhoun VD, Wang YP. Latent Similarity Identifies Important Functional Connections for Phenotype Prediction. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 2023; 70:1979-1989. [PMID: 37015625 PMCID: PMC10284019 DOI: 10.1109/tbme.2022.3232964] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Endophenotypes such as brain age and fluid intelligence are important biomarkers of disease status. However, brain imaging studies to identify these biomarkers often encounter limited numbers of subjects but high dimensional imaging features, hindering reproducibility. Therefore, we develop an interpretable, multivariate classification/regression algorithm, called Latent Similarity (LatSim), suitable for small sample size but high feature dimension datasets. METHODS LatSim combines metric learning with a kernel similarity function and softmax aggregation to identify task-related similarities between subjects. Inter-subject similarity is utilized to improve performance on three prediction tasks using multi-paradigm fMRI data. A greedy selection algorithm, made possible by LatSim's computational efficiency, is developed as an interpretability method. RESULTS LatSim achieved significantly higher predictive accuracy at small sample sizes on the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PNC) dataset. Connections identified by LatSim gave superior discriminative power compared to those identified by other methods. We identified 4 functional brain networks enriched in connections for predicting brain age, sex, and intelligence. CONCLUSION We find that most information for a predictive task comes from only a few (1-5) connections. Additionally, we find that the default mode network is over-represented in the top connections of all predictive tasks. SIGNIFICANCE We propose a novel prediction algorithm for small sample, high feature dimension datasets and use it to identify connections in task fMRI data. Our work can lead to new insights in both algorithm design and neuroscience research.
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26
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Choi EJ, Vandewouw MM, de Villa K, Inoue T, Taylor MJ. The development of functional connectivity within the dorsal striatum from early childhood to adulthood. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2023; 61:101258. [PMID: 37247471 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2022] [Revised: 05/18/2023] [Accepted: 05/21/2023] [Indexed: 05/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Dorsal striatum, principally comprising of caudate and putamen, is well-known to support motor function but also various higher-order cognitive functions. This is enabled by developing short- and long-range connections to distributed cortical regions throughout the life span, but few studies have examined developmental changes from young children to adults in the same cohort. Here we investigated the development of dorsal-striatal network in a large (n = 476), single-site sample of healthy subjects 3-42 years of age in three groups (children, adolescence, adults). The results showed that the connectivity within the striatum and to sensorimotor regions was established at an early stage of life and remained strong in adolescence, supporting that sensory-seeking behaviours and habit formation are important learning mechanisms during the developmental periods. This connectivity diminished with age, as many behaviours become more efficient and automated. Adolescence demonstrated a remarkable transition phase where the connectivity to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex emerged but connectivity to the dorsomedial prefrontal and posterior brain, which belong to the ventral attentional and default mode networks, was only seen in adults. This prolonged maturation in between-network integration may explain the behavioural characteristics of adolescents in that they exhibit elaborated cognitive performance but also demonstrate high risk-taking behaviours.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eun Jung Choi
- Neurosciences & Mental Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Marlee M Vandewouw
- Neurosciences & Mental Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Kathrina de Villa
- Neurosciences & Mental Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Takeshi Inoue
- Neurosciences & Mental Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Pediatrics, Center for Child Development and Psychosomatic, Dokkyo Medical University Saitama Medical Center, Saitama, Japan
| | - Margot J Taylor
- Neurosciences & Mental Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Departments of Medical Imaging and Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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27
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Putkinen V, Nazari-Farsani S, Karjalainen T, Santavirta S, Hudson M, Seppälä K, Sun L, Karlsson HK, Hirvonen J, Nummenmaa L. Pattern recognition reveals sex-dependent neural substrates of sexual perception. Hum Brain Mapp 2023; 44:2543-2556. [PMID: 36773282 PMCID: PMC10028630 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26229] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2022] [Revised: 12/13/2022] [Accepted: 01/16/2023] [Indexed: 02/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Sex differences in brain activity evoked by sexual stimuli remain elusive despite robust evidence for stronger enjoyment of and interest toward sexual stimuli in men than in women. To test whether visual sexual stimuli evoke different brain activity patterns in men and women, we measured hemodynamic brain activity induced by visual sexual stimuli in two experiments with 91 subjects (46 males). In one experiment, the subjects viewed sexual and nonsexual film clips, and dynamic annotations for nudity in the clips were used to predict hemodynamic activity. In the second experiment, the subjects viewed sexual and nonsexual pictures in an event-related design. Men showed stronger activation than women in the visual and prefrontal cortices and dorsal attention network in both experiments. Furthermore, using multivariate pattern classification we could accurately predict the sex of the subject on the basis of the brain activity elicited by the sexual stimuli. The classification generalized across the experiments indicating that the sex differences were task-independent. Eye tracking data obtained from an independent sample of subjects (N = 110) showed that men looked longer than women at the chest area of the nude female actors in the film clips. These results indicate that visual sexual stimuli evoke discernible brain activity patterns in men and women which may reflect stronger attentional engagement with sexual stimuli in men.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vesa Putkinen
- Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
- Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
| | - Sanaz Nazari-Farsani
- Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
- Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
| | - Tomi Karjalainen
- Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
- Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
| | - Severi Santavirta
- Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
- Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
| | - Matthew Hudson
- Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
- School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK
| | - Kerttu Seppälä
- Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
- Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
- Department of Medical Physics, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
| | - Lihua Sun
- Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
- Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
| | - Henry K Karlsson
- Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
- Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
| | - Jussi Hirvonen
- Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
- Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
- Department of Radiology, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
| | - Lauri Nummenmaa
- Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
- Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
- Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
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28
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Kavčič A, Demšar J, Georgiev D, Bon J, Soltirovska-Šalamon A. Age related changes and sex related differences of functional brain networks in childhood: A high-density EEG study. Clin Neurophysiol 2023; 150:216-226. [PMID: 37104911 DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2023.03.357] [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: 07/11/2022] [Revised: 02/11/2023] [Accepted: 03/18/2023] [Indexed: 04/29/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to explore functional network age-related changes and sex-related differences during the early lifespan with a high-density resting state electroencephalography (rs-EEG). METHODS We analyzed two data sets of high-density rs-EEG in healthy children and adolescents. We recorded a 64-channel EEG and calculated functional connectomes in 27 participants aged 5-18 years. To validate our results, we used publicly available data and calculated functional connectomes in another 86 participants aged 6-18 years from a 128-channel rs-EEG. We were primarily interested in alpha frequency band, but we also analyzed theta and beta frequency bands. RESULTS We observed age-related increase of characteristic path, clustering coefficient and interhemispheric strength in the alpha frequency band of both data sets and in the beta frequency band of the larger validation data set. Age-related increase of global efficiency was seen in the theta band of the validation data set and in the alpha band of the test data set. Increase in small worldness was observed only in the alpha frequency band of the test data set. We also observed an increase of individual peak alpha frequency with age in both data sets. Sex-related differences were only observed in the beta frequency band of the larger validation data set, with females having higher values than same aged males. CONCLUSIONS Functional brain networks show indices of higher segregation, but also increasing global integration with maturation. Age-related changes are most prominent in the alpha frequency band. SIGNIFICANCE To the best of our knowledge, our study was the first to analyze maturation related changes and sex-related differences of functional brain networks with a high-density EEG and to compare functional connectomes generated from two diverse high-density EEG data sets. Understanding the age-related changes and sex-related differences of functional brain networks in healthy children and adolescents is crucial for identifying network abnormalities in different neurologic and psychiatric conditions, with the aim to identify possible markers for prognosis and treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alja Kavčič
- Division of Pediatrics, Department of Neonatology, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Jure Demšar
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Faculty of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Dejan Georgiev
- Department of Neurology, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Jurij Bon
- Department of Neurology, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia; University Psychiatric Clinic Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Aneta Soltirovska-Šalamon
- Division of Pediatrics, Department of Neonatology, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
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29
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Fenske SJ, Liu J, Chen H, Diniz MA, Stephens RL, Cornea E, Gilmore JH, Gao W. Sex differences in resting state functional connectivity across the first two years of life. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2023; 60:101235. [PMID: 36966646 PMCID: PMC10066534 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101235] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2022] [Revised: 02/17/2023] [Accepted: 03/19/2023] [Indexed: 03/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Sex differences in behavior have been reported from infancy through adulthood, but little is known about sex effects on functional circuitry in early infancy. Moreover, the relationship between early sex effects on the functional architecture of the brain and later behavioral performance remains to be elucidated. In this study, we used resting-state fMRI and a novel heatmap analysis to examine sex differences in functional connectivity with cross-sectional and longitudinal mixed models in a large cohort of infants (n = 319 neonates, 1-, and 2-year-olds). An adult dataset (n = 92) was also included for comparison. We investigated the relationship between sex differences in functional circuitry and later measures of language (collected in 1- and 2-year-olds) as well as indices of anxiety, executive function, and intelligence (collected in 4-year-olds). Brain areas showing the most significant sex differences were age-specific across infancy, with two temporal regions demonstrating consistent differences. Measures of functional connectivity showing sex differences in infancy were significantly associated with subsequent behavioral scores of language, executive function, and intelligence. Our findings provide insights into the effects of sex on dynamic neurodevelopmental trajectories during infancy and lay an important foundation for understanding the mechanisms underlying sex differences in health and disease.
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30
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Kenkel WM, Ortiz RJ, Yee JR, Perkeybile AM, Kulkarni P, Carter CS, Cushing BS, Ferris CF. Neuroanatomical and functional consequences of oxytocin treatment at birth in prairie voles. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2023; 150:106025. [PMID: 36709631 PMCID: PMC10064488 DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2023.106025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2022] [Revised: 01/06/2023] [Accepted: 01/07/2023] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
Birth is a critical period for the developing brain, a time when surging hormone levels help prepare the fetal brain for the tremendous physiological changes it must accomplish upon entry into the 'extrauterine world'. A number of obstetrical conditions warrant manipulations of these hormones at the time of birth, but we know little of their possible consequences on the developing brain. One of the most notable birth signaling hormones is oxytocin, which is administered to roughly 50% of laboring women in the United States prior to / during delivery. Previously, we found evidence for behavioral, epigenetic, and neuroendocrine consequences in adult prairie vole offspring following maternal oxytocin treatment immediately prior to birth. Here, we examined the neurodevelopmental consequences in adult prairie vole offspring following maternal oxytocin treatment prior to birth. Control prairie voles and those exposed to 0.25 mg/kg oxytocin were scanned as adults using anatomical and functional MRI, with neuroanatomy and brain function analyzed as voxel-based morphometry and resting state functional connectivity, respectively. Overall, anatomical differences brought on by oxytocin treatment, while widespread, were generally small, while differences in functional connectivity, particularly among oxytocin-exposed males, were larger. Analyses of functional connectivity based in graph theory revealed that oxytocin-exposed males in particular showed markedly increased connectivity throughout the brain and across several parameters, including closeness and degree. These results are interpreted in the context of the organizational effects of oxytocin exposure in early life and these findings add to a growing literature on how the perinatal brain is sensitive to hormonal manipulations at birth.
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Affiliation(s)
- William M Kenkel
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA; Department of Psychology, Center for Translational NeuroImaging, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - Richard J Ortiz
- Department of Psychology, Center for Translational NeuroImaging, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA; Department of Biological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA
| | - Jason R Yee
- Department of Psychology, Center for Translational NeuroImaging, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; Institute of Animal Welfare Science, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
| | - Allison M Perkeybile
- Department of Psychology, Center for Translational NeuroImaging, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - Praveen Kulkarni
- Department of Psychology, Center for Translational NeuroImaging, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - C Sue Carter
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - Bruce S Cushing
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA
| | - Craig F Ferris
- Department of Psychology, Center for Translational NeuroImaging, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
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31
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Yu Y, Kan X, Cui H, Xu R, Zheng Y, Song X, Zhu Y, Zhang K, Nabi R, Guo Y, Zhang C, Yang C. DEEP DAG LEARNING OF EFFECTIVE BRAIN CONNECTIVITY FOR FMRI ANALYSIS. PROCEEDINGS. IEEE INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON BIOMEDICAL IMAGING 2023; 2023:10.1109/isbi53787.2023.10230429. [PMID: 38868456 PMCID: PMC11168307 DOI: 10.1109/isbi53787.2023.10230429] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2024]
Abstract
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become one of the most common imaging modalities for brain function analysis. Recently, graph neural networks (GNN) have been adopted for fMRI analysis with superior performance. Unfortunately, traditional functional brain networks are mainly constructed based on similarities among region of interests (ROIs), which are noisy and can lead to inferior results for GNN models. To better adapt GNNs for fMRI analysis, we propose DABNet, a Deep DAG learning framework based on Brain Networks for fMRI analysis. DABNet adopts a brain network generator module, which harnesses the DAG learning approach to transform the raw time-series into effective brain connectivities. Experiments on two fMRI datasets demonstrate the efficacy of DABNet. The generated brain networks also highlight the prediction-related brain regions and thus provide interpretations for predictions.
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32
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Cook KM, De Asis-Cruz J, Lopez C, Quistorff J, Kapse K, Andersen N, Vezina G, Limperopoulos C. Robust sex differences in functional brain connectivity are present in utero. Cereb Cortex 2023; 33:2441-2454. [PMID: 35641152 PMCID: PMC10016060 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2021] [Revised: 05/09/2022] [Accepted: 05/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Sex-based differences in brain structure and function are observable throughout development and are thought to contribute to differences in behavior, cognition, and the presentation of neurodevelopmental disorders. Using multiple support vector machine (SVM) models as a data-driven approach to assess sex differences, we sought to identify regions exhibiting sex-dependent differences in functional connectivity and determine whether they were robust and sufficiently reliable to classify sex even prior to birth. To accomplish this, we used a sample of 110 human fetal resting state fMRI scans from 95 fetuses, performed between 19 and 40 gestational weeks. Functional brain connectivity patterns classified fetal sex with 73% accuracy. Across SVM models, we identified features (functional connections) that reliably differentiated fetal sex. Highly consistent predictors included connections in the somatomotor and frontal areas alongside the hippocampus, cerebellum, and basal ganglia. Moreover, high consistency features also implicated a greater magnitude of cross-region connections in females, while male weighted features were predominately within anatomically bounded regions. Our findings indicate that these differences, which have been observed later in childhood, are present and reliably detectable even before birth. These results show that sex differences arise before birth in a manner that is consistent and reliable enough to be highly identifiable.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin M Cook
- Developing Brain Institute, Children’s National, 111 Michigan Ave NW, Washington DC 20010, USA
| | - Josepheen De Asis-Cruz
- Developing Brain Institute, Children’s National, 111 Michigan Ave NW, Washington DC 20010, USA
| | - Catherine Lopez
- Developing Brain Institute, Children’s National, 111 Michigan Ave NW, Washington DC 20010, USA
| | - Jessica Quistorff
- Developing Brain Institute, Children’s National, 111 Michigan Ave NW, Washington DC 20010, USA
| | - Kushal Kapse
- Developing Brain Institute, Children’s National, 111 Michigan Ave NW, Washington DC 20010, USA
| | - Nicole Andersen
- Developing Brain Institute, Children’s National, 111 Michigan Ave NW, Washington DC 20010, USA
| | - Gilbert Vezina
- Division of Diagnostic Imaging and Radiology, Children’s National, 111 Michigan Ave NW, Washington DC 20010, USA
| | - Catherine Limperopoulos
- Developing Brain Institute, Children’s National, 111 Michigan Ave NW, Washington DC 20010, USA
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Anderson ED, Barbey AK. Investigating cognitive neuroscience theories of human intelligence: A connectome-based predictive modeling approach. Hum Brain Mapp 2023; 44:1647-1665. [PMID: 36537816 PMCID: PMC9921238 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26164] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2022] [Revised: 09/18/2022] [Accepted: 11/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Central to modern neuroscientific theories of human intelligence is the notion that general intelligence depends on a primary brain region or network, engaging spatially localized (rather than global) neural representations. Recent findings in network neuroscience, however, challenge this assumption, providing evidence that general intelligence may depend on system-wide network mechanisms, suggesting that local representations are necessary but not sufficient to account for the neural architecture of human intelligence. Despite the importance of this key theoretical distinction, prior research has not systematically investigated the role of local versus global neural representations in predicting general intelligence. We conducted a large-scale connectome-based predictive modeling study (N = 297), administering resting-state fMRI and a comprehensive cognitive battery to evaluate the efficacy of modern neuroscientific theories of human intelligence, including spatially localized theories (Lateral Prefrontal Cortex Theory, Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory, and Multiple Demand Theory) and recent global accounts (Process Overlap Theory and Network Neuroscience Theory). The results of our study demonstrate that general intelligence can be predicted by local functional connectivity profiles but is most robustly explained by global profiles of whole-brain connectivity. Our findings further suggest that the improved efficacy of global theories is not reducible to a greater strength or number of connections, but instead results from considering both strong and weak connections that provide the basis for intelligence (as predicted by the Network Neuroscience Theory). Our results highlight the importance of considering local neural representations in the context of a global information-processing architecture, suggesting future directions for theory-driven research on system-wide network mechanisms underlying general intelligence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evan D Anderson
- Decision Neuroscience Laboratory, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA.,Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA.,Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp, Broomfield, Colorado, USA.,Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, USA
| | - Aron K Barbey
- Decision Neuroscience Laboratory, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA.,Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA.,Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA.,Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA
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Tomasi D, Volkow ND. Measures of Brain Connectivity and Cognition by Sex in US Children. JAMA Netw Open 2023; 6:e230157. [PMID: 36809470 PMCID: PMC9945095 DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.0157] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/23/2023] Open
Abstract
IMPORTANCE The neurobiological underpinnings underlying sex differences in cognition during adolescence are largely unknown. OBJECTIVE To examine sex differences in brain circuitry and their association with cognitive performance in US children. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This cross-sectional study analyzed behavioral and imaging data from 9- to 11-year-old children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study between August 2017 and November 2018. The ABCD study is an open-science, multisite study following up more than 11 800 youths into early adulthood for 10 years with annual laboratory-based assessments and biennial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The selection of ABCD study children for the current analysis was based on the availability of functional and structural MRI data sets in ABCD Brain Imaging Data Structure Community Collection format. Five hundred and sixty participants who had excessive level of head motion (>50% of time points with framewise displacement >0.5 mm) during resting-state functional MRI were excluded from the analyses. Data were analyzed between January and August 2022. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The main outcomes were the sex differences in (A) global functional connectivity density at rest and (B) mean water diffusivity (MD) and (C) the correlation of these metrics with total cognitive scores. RESULTS A total of 8961 children (4604 boys and 4357 girls; mean [SD] age, 9.92 [0.62] years) were included in this analysis. Girls had higher functional connectivity density in default mode network hubs than boys, predominantly in the posterior cingulate cortex (Cohen d = -0.36), and lower MD and transverse diffusivity, predominantly in the superior corticostriatal white matter bundle (Cohen d = 0.3). Age-corrected fluid and total composite scores were higher for girls than for boys (Cohen d = -0.08 [fluid] and -0.04 [total]; P = 2.7 × 10-5). Although total mean (SD) brain volume (1260 [104] mL in boys and 1160 [95] mL in girls; t = 50; Cohen d = 1.0; df = 8738) and the proportion of white matter (d = 0.4) were larger for boys than for girls, the proportion of gray matter was larger for girls than for boys (d = -0.3; P = 2.2 × 10-16). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE The findings of this cross-sectional study on sex differences in brain connectivity and cognition are relevant to the future creation of brain developmental trajectory charts to monitor for deviations associated with impairments in cognition or behavior, including those due to psychiatric or neurological disorders. They could also serve as a framework for studies investigating the differential contribution of biological vs social or cultural factors in the neurodevelopmental trajectories of girls and boys.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dardo Tomasi
- Laboratory of Neuroimaging, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, Maryland
| | - Nora D. Volkow
- Laboratory of Neuroimaging, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, Maryland
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, Bethesda, Maryland
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Cui H, Dai W, Zhu Y, Kan X, Gu AAC, Lukemire J, Zhan L, He L, Guo Y, Yang C. BrainGB: A Benchmark for Brain Network Analysis With Graph Neural Networks. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MEDICAL IMAGING 2023; 42:493-506. [PMID: 36318557 PMCID: PMC10079627 DOI: 10.1109/tmi.2022.3218745] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Mapping the connectome of the human brain using structural or functional connectivity has become one of the most pervasive paradigms for neuroimaging analysis. Recently, Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) motivated from geometric deep learning have attracted broad interest due to their established power for modeling complex networked data. Despite their superior performance in many fields, there has not yet been a systematic study of how to design effective GNNs for brain network analysis. To bridge this gap, we present BrainGB, a benchmark for brain network analysis with GNNs. BrainGB standardizes the process by (1) summarizing brain network construction pipelines for both functional and structural neuroimaging modalities and (2) modularizing the implementation of GNN designs. We conduct extensive experiments on datasets across cohorts and modalities and recommend a set of general recipes for effective GNN designs on brain networks. To support open and reproducible research on GNN-based brain network analysis, we host the BrainGB website at https://braingb.us with models, tutorials, examples, as well as an out-of-box Python package. We hope that this work will provide useful empirical evidence and offer insights for future research in this novel and promising direction.
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Abstract
There is now a significant body of literature concerning sex/gender differences in the human brain. This chapter will critically review and synthesise key findings from several studies that have investigated sex/gender differences in structural and functional lateralisation and connectivity. We argue that while small, relative sex/gender differences reliably exist in lateralisation and connectivity, there is considerable overlap between the sexes. Some inconsistencies exist, however, and this is likely due to considerable variability in the methodologies, tasks, measures, and sample compositions between studies. Moreover, research to date is limited in its consideration of sex/gender-related factors, such as sex hormones and gender roles, that can explain inter-and inter-individual differences in brain and behaviour better than sex/gender alone. We conclude that conceptualising the brain as 'sexually dimorphic' is incorrect, and the terms 'male brain' and 'female brain' should be avoided in the neuroscientific literature. However, this does not necessarily mean that sex/gender differences in the brain are trivial. Future research involving sex/gender should adopt a biopsychosocial approach whenever possible, to ensure that non-binary psychological, biological, and environmental/social factors related to sex/gender, and their interactions, are routinely accounted for.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophie Hodgetts
- School of Psychology, University of Sunderland, Sunderland, UK
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Lee S, Bijsterbosch JD, Almagro FA, Elliott L, McCarthy P, Taschler B, Sala-Llonch R, Beckmann CF, Duff EP, Smith SM, Douaud G. Amplitudes of resting-state functional networks - investigation into their correlates and biophysical properties. Neuroimage 2023; 265:119779. [PMID: 36462729 PMCID: PMC10933815 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119779] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2022] [Revised: 10/31/2022] [Accepted: 11/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Resting-state fMRI studies have shown that multiple functional networks, which consist of distributed brain regions that share synchronised spontaneous activity, co-exist in the brain. As these resting-state networks (RSNs) have been thought to reflect the brain's intrinsic functional organization, intersubject variability in the networks' spontaneous fluctuations may be associated with individuals' clinical, physiological, cognitive, and genetic traits. Here, we investigated resting-state fMRI data along with extensive clinical, lifestyle, and genetic data collected from 37,842 UK Biobank participants, with the object of elucidating intersubject variability in the fluctuation amplitudes of RSNs. Functional properties of the RSN amplitudes were first examined by analyzing correlations with the well-established between-network functional connectivity. It was found that a network amplitude is highly correlated with the mean strength of the functional connectivity that the network has with the other networks. Intersubject clustering analysis showed the amplitudes are most strongly correlated with age, cardiovascular factors, body composition, blood cell counts, lung function, and sex, with some differences in the correlation strengths between sensory and cognitive RSNs. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of RSN amplitudes identified several significant genetic variants reported in previous GWASs for their implications in sleep duration. We provide insight into key factors determining RSN amplitudes and demonstrate that intersubject variability of the amplitudes primarily originates from differences in temporal synchrony between functionally linked brain regions, rather than differences in the magnitude of raw voxelwise BOLD signal changes. This finding additionally revealed intriguing differences between sensory and cognitive RSNs with respect to sex effects on temporal synchrony and provided evidence suggesting that synchronous coactivations of functionally linked brain regions, and magnitudes of BOLD signal changes, may be related to different genetic mechanisms. These results underscore that intersubject variability of the amplitudes in health and disease need to be interpreted largely as a measure of the sum of within-network temporal synchrony and amplitudes of BOLD signals, with a dominant contribution from the former.
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Affiliation(s)
- Soojin Lee
- Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, UK; Pacific Parkinson's Research Institute, University of British Columbia, Canada.
| | - Janine D Bijsterbosch
- Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, UK; Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University Medical School, Washington University in St Louis, USA
| | - Fidel Alfaro Almagro
- Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, UK
| | - Lloyd Elliott
- Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Simon Fraser University (SFU), Canada
| | - Paul McCarthy
- Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, UK
| | - Bernd Taschler
- Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, UK
| | - Roser Sala-Llonch
- Department of Biomedicine, Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, Spain
| | - Christian F Beckmann
- Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, UK; Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Eugene P Duff
- Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, UK; Department of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, UK Dementia Research Institute, London UK
| | - Stephen M Smith
- Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, UK
| | - Gwenaëlle Douaud
- Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, UK
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Norman LJ, Sudre G, Price J, Shastri GG, Shaw P. Evidence from "big data" for the default-mode hypothesis of ADHD: a mega-analysis of multiple large samples. Neuropsychopharmacology 2023; 48:281-289. [PMID: 36100657 PMCID: PMC9751118 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-022-01408-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2022] [Revised: 07/10/2022] [Accepted: 07/16/2022] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
We sought to identify resting-state characteristics related to attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, both as a categorical diagnosis and as a trait feature, using large-scale samples which were processed according to a standardized pipeline. In categorical analyses, we considered 1301 subjects with diagnosed ADHD, contrasted against 1301 unaffected controls (total N = 2602; 1710 males (65.72%); mean age = 10.86 years, sd = 2.05). Cases and controls were 1:1 nearest neighbor matched on in-scanner motion and key demographic variables and drawn from multiple large cohorts. Associations between ADHD-traits and resting-state connectivity were also assessed in a large multi-cohort sample (N = 10,113). ADHD diagnosis was associated with less anticorrelation between the default mode and salience/ventral attention (B = 0.009, t = 3.45, p-FDR = 0.004, d = 0.14, 95% CI = 0.004, 0.014), somatomotor (B = 0.008, t = 3.49, p-FDR = 0.004, d = 0.14, 95% CI = 0.004, 0.013), and dorsal attention networks (B = 0.01, t = 4.28, p-FDR < 0.001, d = 0.17, 95% CI = 0.006, 0.015). These results were robust to sensitivity analyses considering comorbid internalizing problems, externalizing problems and psychostimulant medication. Similar findings were observed when examining ADHD traits, with the largest effect size observed for connectivity between the default mode network and the dorsal attention network (B = 0.0006, t = 5.57, p-FDR < 0.001, partial-r = 0.06, 95% CI = 0.0004, 0.0008). We report significant ADHD-related differences in interactions between the default mode network and task-positive networks, in line with default mode interference models of ADHD. Effect sizes (Cohen's d and partial-r, estimated from the mega-analytic models) were small, indicating subtle group differences. The overlap between the affected brain networks in the clinical and general population samples supports the notion of brain phenotypes operating along an ADHD continuum.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luke J Norman
- Office of the Clinical Director, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA.
- Section on Neurobehavioral and Clinical Research, Social and Behavioral Research Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA.
| | - Gustavo Sudre
- Section on Neurobehavioral and Clinical Research, Social and Behavioral Research Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Jolie Price
- Section on Neurobehavioral and Clinical Research, Social and Behavioral Research Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Gauri G Shastri
- Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Philip Shaw
- Office of the Clinical Director, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
- Section on Neurobehavioral and Clinical Research, Social and Behavioral Research Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
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Cha M, Eum YJ, Kim K, Kim L, Bak H, Sohn JH, Cheong C, Lee BH. Diffusion tensor imaging reveals sex differences in pain sensitivity of rats. Front Mol Neurosci 2023; 16:1073963. [PMID: 36937048 PMCID: PMC10017469 DOI: 10.3389/fnmol.2023.1073963] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2022] [Accepted: 02/06/2023] [Indexed: 03/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Studies on differences in brain structure and function according to sex are reported to contribute to differences in behavior and cognition. However, few studies have investigated brain structures or used tractography to investigate gender differences in pain sensitivity. The identification of tracts involved in sex-based structural differences that show pain sensitivity has remained elusive to date. Here, we attempted to demonstrate the sex differences in pain sensitivity and to clarify its relationship with brain structural connectivity. In this study, pain behavior test and brain diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) were performed in male and female rats and tractography was performed on the whole brain using fiber tracking software. We selected eight brain regions related to pain and performed a tractography analysis of these regions. Fractional anisotropy (FA) measurements using automated tractography revealed sex differences in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)-, prefrontal cortex (PFC)-, and ventral posterior thalamus-related brain connections. In addition, the results of the correlation analysis of pain sensitivity and DTI tractography showed differences in mean, axial, and radial diffusivities, as well as FA. This study revealed the potential of DTI for exploring circuits involved in pain sensitivity. The behavioral and functional relevance's of measures derived from DTI tractography is demonstrated by their relationship with pain sensitivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Myeounghoon Cha
- Department of Physiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Young-Ji Eum
- Bio-Chemical Analysis Team, Korea Basic Science Institute, Cheongju, Republic of Korea
| | - Kyeongmin Kim
- Department of Physiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Graduate School of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Leejeong Kim
- Department of Physiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Graduate School of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Hyeji Bak
- Department of Physiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Jin-Hun Sohn
- Department of Physiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Chaejoon Cheong
- Bio-Chemical Analysis Team, Korea Basic Science Institute, Cheongju, Republic of Korea
- *Correspondence: Chaejoon Cheong,
| | - Bae Hwan Lee
- Department of Physiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Graduate School of Medical Science, Brain Korea 21 Project, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Bae Hwan Lee,
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Mijalkov M, Veréb D, Jamialahmadi O, Canal-Garcia A, Gómez-Ruiz E, Vidal-Piñeiro D, Romeo S, Volpe G, Pereira JB. Sex differences in multilayer functional network topology over the course of aging in 37543 UK Biobank participants. Netw Neurosci 2023; 7:351-376. [PMID: 37334001 PMCID: PMC10275214 DOI: 10.1162/netn_a_00286] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2022] [Accepted: 10/06/2022] [Indexed: 07/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Aging is a major risk factor for cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disorders, with considerable societal and economic implications. Healthy aging is accompanied by changes in functional connectivity between and within resting-state functional networks, which have been associated with cognitive decline. However, there is no consensus on the impact of sex on these age-related functional trajectories. Here, we show that multilayer measures provide crucial information on the interaction between sex and age on network topology, allowing for better assessment of cognitive, structural, and cardiovascular risk factors that have been shown to differ between men and women, as well as providing additional insights into the genetic influences on changes in functional connectivity that occur during aging. In a large cross-sectional sample of 37,543 individuals from the UK Biobank cohort, we demonstrate that such multilayer measures that capture the relationship between positive and negative connections are more sensitive to sex-related changes in the whole-brain connectivity patterns and their topological architecture throughout aging, when compared to standard connectivity and topological measures. Our findings indicate that multilayer measures contain previously unknown information on the relationship between sex and age, which opens up new avenues for research into functional brain connectivity in aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mite Mijalkov
- Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Dániel Veréb
- Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Oveis Jamialahmadi
- Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, Goteborg University, Goteborg, Sweden
| | - Anna Canal-Garcia
- Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | | | | | - Stefano Romeo
- Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, Goteborg University, Goteborg, Sweden
- Cardiology Department, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden
- Clinical Nutrition Unit, University Magna Graecia, Catanzaro, Italy
| | - Giovanni Volpe
- Department of Physics, Goteborg University, Goteborg, Sweden
| | - Joana B. Pereira
- Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
- Memory Research Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences Malmö, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
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Voskuhl R, Itoh Y. The X factor in neurodegeneration. J Exp Med 2022; 219:e20211488. [PMID: 36331399 PMCID: PMC9641640 DOI: 10.1084/jem.20211488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2022] [Revised: 06/22/2022] [Accepted: 10/12/2022] [Indexed: 07/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Given the aging population, it is important to better understand neurodegeneration in aging healthy people and to address the increasing incidence of neurodegenerative diseases. It is imperative to apply novel strategies to identify neuroprotective therapeutics. The study of sex differences in neurodegeneration can reveal new candidate treatment targets tailored for women and men. Sex chromosome effects on neurodegeneration remain understudied and represent a promising frontier for discovery. Here, we will review sex differences in neurodegeneration, focusing on the study of sex chromosome effects in the context of declining levels of sex hormones during aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rhonda Voskuhl
- Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
| | - Yuichiro Itoh
- Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
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Winters DE, Hyde LW. Associated functional network connectivity between callous-unemotionality and cognitive and affective empathy. J Affect Disord 2022; 318:304-313. [PMID: 36063973 PMCID: PMC10039983 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.08.103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2021] [Revised: 05/21/2022] [Accepted: 08/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Low empathy is one component of affective impairments defining the antisocial youth phenotype callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Research suggests CU traits may be negatively associated with neural networks that are positively associated with cognitive and affective empathy - specifically the default mode (DMN), frontoparietal (FPN), and salience (SAL) networks. Determining which functional network connections are shared between CU traits and empathy could elucidate the extent to which CU traits shares neural substrates with cognitive versus affective empathy. The present study tested whether CU traits and both cognitive and affective empathy share network connections within and between the DMN, FPN, and SAL. METHODS Participants (n = 112, aged 13-17, 43 % female) completed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and self-reports for CU traits and empathy as part of a Nathan-Kline Institute study. RESULTS Analyses revealed inverse associations with shared network connections between CU traits and both cognitive and affective empathy. Specifically, within-DMN connectivity negatively associated with CU traits, but positively associated with cognitive empathy; and between DMN-SAL connectivity positively associated with CU traits, but negatively associated with both cognitive and affective empathy. However, joint models revealed little variance explained by CU traits and empathy overlapped. LIMITATIONS The sample was cross-sectional collection with limited participants (n = 112) from the community that may not generalize to incarcerated adolescents. CONCLUSIONS Results demonstrate CU traits inversely associated with similar connectivity patterns as cognitive and affective empathy though prediction among constructs did not significantly overlap. Further investigation of these connections can inform a mechanistic understanding of empathy impairments in CU traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Drew E Winters
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, United States of America.
| | - Luke W Hyde
- Department of Psychology and Survey Research Center at the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
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Rauch JM, Eliot L. Breaking the binary: Gender versus sex analysis in human brain imaging. Neuroimage 2022; 264:119732. [PMID: 36334813 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119732] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2022] [Revised: 10/31/2022] [Accepted: 11/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite decades of pursuit, human brain imaging has yet to uncover clear neural correlates of male-female behavioral differences. Given that such behavior does not always align with sex categories, we argue that neuroimaging research may find more success by partitioning subjects along nonbinary gender attributes in addition to sex. We review the handful of studies that have done this, several of which find as good or better association between brain measures and "gender" as they do with "sex." Recent advances in operationalizing "gender" as a multidimensional variable should facilitate such studies, along with discovery-based approaches that mine brain imaging data for gender-associated attributes, independent of sex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia M Rauch
- Chicago Medical School, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science, USA
| | - Lise Eliot
- Chicago Medical School, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science, USA; Stanson Toshok Center for Brain Function and Repair; Dept. Foundational Sciences and Humanities, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science, 3333 Green Bay Road, North Chicago, Illinois 60064, USA.
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44
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De Gregorio R, Subah G, Chan JC, Speranza L, Zhang X, Ramakrishnan A, Shen L, Maze I, Stanton PK, Sze JY. Sex-biased effects on hippocampal circuit development by perinatal SERT expression in CA3 pyramidal neurons. Development 2022; 149:dev200549. [PMID: 36178075 PMCID: PMC10655925 DOI: 10.1242/dev.200549] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2022] [Accepted: 09/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Neurodevelopmental disorders ranging from autism to intellectual disability display sex-biased prevalence and phenotypical presentations. Despite increasing knowledge about temporospatial cortical map development and genetic variants linked to neurodevelopmental disorders, when and how sex-biased neural circuit derailment may arise in diseased brain remain unknown. Here, we identify in mice that serotonin uptake transporter (SERT) in non-serotonergic neurons - hippocampal and prefrontal pyramidal neurons - confers sex-biased effects specifically during neural circuit development. A set of gradient-patterned CA3 pyramidal neurons transiently express SERT to clear extracellular serotonin, coinciding with hippocampal synaptic circuit establishment. Ablating pyramidal neuron SERT (SERTPyramidΔ) alters dendritic spine developmental trajectory in the hippocampus, and precipitates sex-biased impairments in long-term activity-dependent hippocampal synaptic plasticity and cognitive behaviors. Transcriptomic analyses identify sex-biased alterations in gene sets associated with autism, dendritic spine structure, synaptic function and male-specific enrichment of dysregulated genes in glial cells in early postnatal SERTPyramidΔ hippocampus. Our data suggest that SERT function in these pyramidal neurons underscores a temporal- and brain region-specific regulation of normal sex-dimorphic circuit development and a source for sex-biased vulnerability to cognitive and behavioral impairments. This article has an associated 'The people behind the papers' interview.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roberto De Gregorio
- Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA
| | - Galadu Subah
- Department of Cell Biology & Anatomy, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY 10595, USA
| | - Jennifer C. Chan
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY 10029, USA
| | - Luisa Speranza
- Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA
| | - Xiaolei Zhang
- Department of Cell Biology & Anatomy, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY 10595, USA
| | - Aarthi Ramakrishnan
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY 10029, USA
| | - Li Shen
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY 10029, USA
| | - Ian Maze
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY 10029, USA
| | - Patric K. Stanton
- Department of Cell Biology & Anatomy, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY 10595, USA
| | - Ji Y. Sze
- Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA
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45
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Dhamala E, Ooi LQR, Chen J, Kong R, Anderson KM, Chin R, Yeo BTT, Holmes AJ. Proportional intracranial volume correction differentially biases behavioral predictions across neuroanatomical features, sexes, and development. Neuroimage 2022; 260:119485. [PMID: 35843514 PMCID: PMC9425854 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119485] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2022] [Revised: 07/08/2022] [Accepted: 07/13/2022] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Individual differences in brain anatomy can be used to predict variations in cognitive ability. Most studies to date have focused on broad population-level trends, but the extent to which the observed predictive features are shared across sexes and age groups remains to be established. While it is standard practice to account for intracranial volume (ICV) using proportion correction in both regional and whole-brain morphometric analyses, in the context of brain-behavior predictions the possible differential impact of ICV correction on anatomical features and subgroups within the population has yet to be systematically investigated. In this work, we evaluate the effect of proportional ICV correction on sex-independent and sex-specific predictive models of individual cognitive abilities across multiple anatomical properties (surface area, gray matter volume, and cortical thickness) in healthy young adults (Human Connectome Project; n = 1013, 548 females) and typically developing children (Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study; n = 1823, 979 females). We demonstrate that ICV correction generally reduces predictive accuracies derived from surface area and gray matter volume, while increasing predictive accuracies based on cortical thickness in both adults and children. Furthermore, the extent to which predictive models generalize across sexes and age groups depends on ICV correction: models based on surface area and gray matter volume are more generalizable without ICV correction, while models based on cortical thickness are more generalizable with ICV correction. Finally, the observed neuroanatomical features predictive of cognitive abilities are unique across age groups regardless of ICV correction, but whether they are shared or unique across sexes (within age groups) depends on ICV correction. These findings highlight the importance of considering individual differences in ICV, and show that proportional ICV correction does not remove the effects of cranial volume from anatomical measurements and can introduce ICV bias where previously there was none. ICV correction choices affect not just the strength of the relationships captured, but also the conclusions drawn regarding the neuroanatomical features that underlie those relationships.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elvisha Dhamala
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, United States; Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Yale University, New Haven, United States.
| | - Leon Qi Rong Ooi
- Centre for Sleep & Cognition & Centre for Translational Magnetic Resonance Research, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Singapore, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore; N.1 Institute for Health & Institute for Digital Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Integrative Sciences and Engineering Programme (ISEP), National University of Singapore, Singapore
| | - Jianzhong Chen
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore; N.1 Institute for Health & Institute for Digital Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Integrative Sciences and Engineering Programme (ISEP), National University of Singapore, Singapore
| | - Ru Kong
- Centre for Sleep & Cognition & Centre for Translational Magnetic Resonance Research, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Singapore, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Integrative Sciences and Engineering Programme (ISEP), National University of Singapore, Singapore
| | - Kevin M Anderson
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, United States
| | - Rowena Chin
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, United States
| | - B T Thomas Yeo
- Centre for Sleep & Cognition & Centre for Translational Magnetic Resonance Research, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Singapore, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore; N.1 Institute for Health & Institute for Digital Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Integrative Sciences and Engineering Programme (ISEP), National University of Singapore, Singapore; Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States
| | - Avram J Holmes
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, United States; Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Yale University, New Haven, United States; Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, United States; Wu Tsai Institute, Yale University, New Haven, United States.
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Kerr-German A, White SF, Santosa H, Buss AT, Doucet GE. Assessing the relationship between maternal risk for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and functional connectivity in their biological toddlers. Eur Psychiatry 2022; 65:e66. [PMID: 36226356 PMCID: PMC9641653 DOI: 10.1192/j.eurpsy.2022.2325] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with increased risk for poor educational attainment and compromised social integration. Currently, clinical diagnosis rarely occurs before school-age, despite behavioral signs of ADHD in very early childhood. There is no known brain biomarker for ADHD risk in children ages 2-3 years-old. METHODS The current study aimed to investigate the functional connectivity (FC) associated with ADHD risk in 70 children aged 2.5 and 3.5 years via functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in bilateral frontal and parietal cortices; regions involved in attentional and goal-directed cognition. Children were instructed to passively watch videos for approximately 5 min. Risk for ADHD in each child was assessed via maternal symptoms of ADHD, and brain data was evaluated for FC. RESULTS Higher risk for maternal ADHD was associated with lower FC in a left-sided parieto-frontal network. Further, the interaction between sex and risk for ADHD was significant, where FC reduction in a widespread bilateral parieto-frontal network was associated with higher risk in male, but not female, participants. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest functional organization differences in the parietal-frontal network in toddlers at risk for ADHD; potentially advancing the understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying the development of ADHD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anastasia Kerr-German
- Boys Town National Research Hospital, Center for Childhood Deafness, Language and Learning, Omaha, Nebraska68131, USA,Author for correspondence: Anastasia Kerr-German, E-mail:
| | - Stuart F. White
- Boys Town National Research Hospital, Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town, Nebraska68010, USA,Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience, Creighton School of Medicine, Omaha, Nebraska68124, USA
| | - Hendrik Santosa
- Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburg, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania15260, USA
| | - Aaron T. Buss
- Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee37996, USA
| | - Gaelle E. Doucet
- Boys Town National Research Hospital, Institute for Human Neuroscience, Boys Town, Nebraska68010, USA,Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience, Creighton School of Medicine, Omaha, Nebraska68124, USA
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Xiao L, Cai B, Qu G, Zhang G, Stephen JM, Wilson TW, Calhoun VD, Wang YP. Distance Correlation-Based Brain Functional Connectivity Estimation and Non-Convex Multi-Task Learning for Developmental fMRI Studies. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 2022; 69:3039-3050. [PMID: 35316180 PMCID: PMC9594860 DOI: 10.1109/tbme.2022.3160447] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI)-derived functional connectivity (FC) patterns have been extensively used to delineate global functional organization of the human brain in healthy development and neuropsychiatric disorders. In this paper, we investigate how FC in males and females differs in an age prediction framework. METHODS We first estimate FC between regions-of-interest (ROIs) using distance correlation instead of Pearson's correlation. Distance correlation, as a multivariate statistical method, explores spatial relations of voxel-wise time courses within individual ROIs and measures both linear and nonlinear dependence, capturing more complex between-ROI interactions. Then, we propose a novel non-convex multi-task learning (NC-MTL) model to study age-related gender differences in FC, where age prediction for each gender group is viewed as one task, and a composite regularizer with a combination of the non-convex l2,1-2 and l1-2 terms is introduced for selecting both common and task-specific features. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION We validate the effectiveness of our NC-MTL model with distance correlation-based FC derived from rs-fMRI for predicting ages of both genders. The experimental results on the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort demonstrate that our NC-MTL model outperforms several other competing MTL models in age prediction. We also compare the age prediction performance of our NC-MTL model using FC estimated by Pearson's correlation and distance correlation, which shows that distance correlation-based FC is more discriminative for age prediction than Pearson's correlation-based FC. SIGNIFICANCE This paper presents a novel framework for functional connectome developmental studies, characterizing developmental gender differences in FC patterns.
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48
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Chang T, Chen N, Fan Y. Uncovering sex/gender differences of arithmetic in the human brain: Insights from fMRI studies. Brain Behav 2022; 12:e2775. [PMID: 36128729 PMCID: PMC9575600 DOI: 10.1002/brb3.2775] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2022] [Revised: 08/01/2022] [Accepted: 08/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
Over the long run, STEM fields had been perceived as dominant by males, despite that numerous studies have shown that female students do not underperform their male classmates in mathematics and science. In this review, we discuss whether and how sex/gender shows specificity in arithmetic processing using a cognitive neuroscience approach not only to capture contemporary differences in brain and behavior but also to provide exclusive brain bases knowledge that is unseen in behavioral outcomes alone. We begin by summarizing studies that had examined sex differences/similarities in behavioral performance of mathematical learning, with a specific focus on large-scale meta-analytical data. We then discuss how the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approach can contribute to understanding neural mechanisms underlying sex-specific effects of mathematical learning by reviewing structural and functional data. Finally, we close this review by proposing potential research issues for further exploration of the sex effect using neuroimaging technology. Through the lens of advancement in the neuroimaging technique, we seek to provide insights into uncovering sex-specific neural mechanisms of learning to inform and achieve genuine gender equality in education.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ting‐Ting Chang
- Department of PsychologyNational Chengchi UniversityTaipeiTaiwan
- Research Center for Mind, Brain & LearningNational Chengchi UniversityTaipeiTaiwan
| | - Nai‐Feng Chen
- Department of PsychologyNational Chengchi UniversityTaipeiTaiwan
| | - Yang‐Teng Fan
- Graduate Institute of MedicineYuan Ze UniversityTaoyuanTaiwan
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49
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Wen Z, Fried J, Pace-Schott EF, Lazar SW, Milad MR. Revisiting sex differences in the acquisition and extinction of threat conditioning in humans. Learn Mem 2022; 29:274-282. [PMID: 36206388 PMCID: PMC9488021 DOI: 10.1101/lm.053521.121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2022] [Accepted: 06/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Findings pertaining to sex differences in the acquisition and extinction of threat conditioning, a paradigm widely used to study emotional homeostasis, remain inconsistent, particularly in humans. This inconsistency is likely due to multiple factors, one of which is sample size. Here, we pooled functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and skin conductance response (SCR) data from multiple studies in healthy humans to examine sex differences during threat conditioning, extinction learning, and extinction memory recall. We observed increased functional activation in males, relative to females, in multiple parietal and frontal (medial and lateral) cortical regions during acquisition of threat conditioning and extinction learning. Females mainly exhibited higher amygdala activation during extinction memory recall to the extinguished conditioned stimulus and also while responding to the unconditioned stimulus (presentation of the shock) during threat conditioning. Whole-brain functional connectivity analyses revealed that females showed increased connectivity across multiple networks including visual, ventral attention, and somatomotor networks during late extinction learning. At the psychophysiological level, a sex difference was only observed during shock delivery, with males exhibiting higher unconditioned responses relative to females. Our findings point to minimal to no sex differences in the expression of conditioned responses during acquisition and extinction of such responses. Functional MRI findings, however, show some distinct functional activations and connectivities between the sexes. These data suggest that males and females might use different neural mechanisms, mainly related to cognitive processing, to achieve comparable levels of acquired conditioned responses to threating cues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhenfu Wen
- Department of Psychiatry, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016, USA
| | - Jamie Fried
- Department of Psychiatry, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016, USA
| | - Edward F Pace-Schott
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02114, USA
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA
| | - Sara W Lazar
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02114, USA
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA
| | - Mohammed R Milad
- Department of Psychiatry, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016, USA
- The Neuroscience Institute, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016, USA
- Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, New York 10962, USA
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50
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Vilca LW. The moderating role of sex in the relationship between executive functions and academic procrastination in undergraduate students. Front Psychol 2022; 13:928425. [PMID: 36072020 PMCID: PMC9444057 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.928425] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2022] [Accepted: 07/29/2022] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
The objective of the study was to determine if sex plays a moderating role in the relationship between executive functions and academic procrastination in 106 university students of both genders (28.3% male and 71.7% female) between the ages of 18 and 30 years (M = 19.7; SD = 2.7). The Academic Procrastination Scale and the Neuropsychological Battery of Executive Functions and Frontal Lobes (BANFE-2) were used to measure the variables. The results of the study showed that the degree of prediction of the tasks linked to the orbitomedial cortex (involves the orbitofrontal cortex [OFC] and the medial prefrontal cortex [mPFC]) on academic procrastination is significantly moderated by the sex of the university students (β3 = 0.53; p < 0.01). For men, the estimated effect of the tasks linked to the orbitomedial cortex on the degree of academic procrastination is −0.81. For women, the estimated effect of the tasks linked to the orbitomedial cortex on the degree of academic procrastination is −0.28. In addition, it was shown that sex does not play a moderating role in the relationship between the tasks linked to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and academic procrastination (β3 = 0.12; p > 0.05). It was also determined that sex does not play a moderating role in the relationship between the tasks linked to the anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC) and academic procrastination (β3 = 0.05; p > 0.05). It is concluded that only the executive functions associated with the orbitomedial cortex are moderated by the sex of the university students, where the impact of the tasks linked to the orbitomedial cortex on academic procrastination in men is significantly greater than in women.
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