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Lancione M, Cencini M, Scaffei E, Cipriano E, Buonincontri G, Schulte RF, Pirkl CM, Buchignani B, Pasquariello R, Canapicchi R, Battini R, Biagi L, Tosetti M. Magnetic resonance fingerprinting-based myelin water fraction mapping for the assessment of white matter maturation and integrity in typical development and leukodystrophies. NMR IN BIOMEDICINE 2024; 37:e5114. [PMID: 38390667 DOI: 10.1002/nbm.5114] [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: 08/29/2023] [Revised: 01/10/2024] [Accepted: 01/11/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024]
Abstract
A quantitative biomarker for myelination, such as myelin water fraction (MWF), would boost the understanding of normative and pathological neurodevelopment, improving patients' diagnosis and follow-up. We quantified the fraction of a rapidly relaxing pool identified as MW using multicomponent three-dimensional (3D) magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) to evaluate white matter (WM) maturation in typically developing (TD) children and alterations in leukodystrophies (LDs). We acquired DTI and 3D MRF-based R1, R2 and MWF data of 15 TD children and 17 LD patients (9 months-12.5 years old) at 1.5 T. We computed normative maturation curves in corpus callosum and corona radiata and performed WM tract profile analysis, comparing MWF with R1, R2 and fractional anisotropy (FA). Normative maturation curves demonstrated a steep increase for all tissue parameters in the first 3 years of age, followed by slower growth for MWF while R1, R2R2 and FA reached a plateau. Unlike FA, MWF values were similar for regions of interest (ROIs) with different degrees of axonal packing, suggesting independence from fiber bundle macro-organization and higher myelin specificity. Tract profile analysis indicated a specific spatial pattern of myelination in the major fiber bundles, consistent across subjects. LD were better distinguished from TD by MWF rather than FA, showing reduced MWF with respect to age-matched controls in both ROI-based and tract analysis. In conclusion, MRF-based MWF provides myelin-specific WM maturation curves and is sensitive to alteration due to LDs, suggesting its potential as a biomarker for WM disorders. As MRF allows fast simultaneous acquisition of relaxometry and MWF, it can represent a valuable diagnostic tool to study and follow up developmental WM disorders in children.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Matteo Cencini
- Pisa Division, National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Pisa, Italy
| | | | - Emilio Cipriano
- IRCCS Stella Maris Foundation, Pisa, Italy
- Department of Physics, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Roberta Battini
- IRCCS Stella Maris Foundation, Pisa, Italy
- Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
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Song L, Peng Y, Ouyang M, Peng Q, Feng L, Sotardi S, Yu Q, Kang H, Sindabizera KL, Liu S, Huang H. Diffusion-tensor-imaging 1-year-old and 2-year-old infant brain atlases with comprehensive gray and white matter labels. Hum Brain Mapp 2024; 45:e26695. [PMID: 38727010 PMCID: PMC11083905 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26695] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2023] [Revised: 03/11/2024] [Accepted: 04/10/2024] [Indexed: 05/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Human infancy is marked by fastest postnatal brain structural changes. It also coincides with the onset of many neurodevelopmental disorders. Atlas-based automated structure labeling has been widely used for analyzing various neuroimaging data. However, the relatively large and nonlinear neuroanatomical differences between infant and adult brains can lead to significant offsets of the labeled structures in infant brains when adult brain atlas is used. Age-specific 1- and 2-year-old brain atlases covering all major gray and white matter (GM and WM) structures with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and structural MRI are critical for precision medicine for infant population yet have not been established. In this study, high-quality DTI and structural MRI data were obtained from 50 healthy children to build up three-dimensional age-specific 1- and 2-year-old brain templates and atlases. Age-specific templates include a single-subject template as well as two population-averaged templates from linear and nonlinear transformation, respectively. Each age-specific atlas consists of 124 comprehensively labeled major GM and WM structures, including 52 cerebral cortical, 10 deep GM, 40 WM, and 22 brainstem and cerebellar structures. When combined with appropriate registration methods, the established atlases can be used for highly accurate automatic labeling of any given infant brain MRI. We demonstrated that one can automatically and effectively delineate deep WM microstructural development from 3 to 38 months by using these age-specific atlases. These established 1- and 2-year-old infant brain DTI atlases can advance our understanding of typical brain development and serve as clinical anatomical references for brain disorders during infancy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Limei Song
- Research Center for Sectional and Imaging AnatomyShandong University School of MedicineJinanShandongChina
- Department of RadiologyChildren's Hospital of PhiladelphiaPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
- School of Medical ImagingWeifang Medical UniversityWeifangChina
| | - Yun Peng
- Department of Radiology, Beijing Children's HospitalCapital Medical UniversityBeijingChina
| | - Minhui Ouyang
- Department of RadiologyChildren's Hospital of PhiladelphiaPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
- Department of Radiology, Perelman School of MedicineUniversity of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
| | - Qinmu Peng
- Department of RadiologyChildren's Hospital of PhiladelphiaPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
| | - Lei Feng
- Research Center for Sectional and Imaging AnatomyShandong University School of MedicineJinanShandongChina
- Department of RadiologyChildren's Hospital of PhiladelphiaPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
| | - Susan Sotardi
- Department of RadiologyChildren's Hospital of PhiladelphiaPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
| | - Qinlin Yu
- Department of RadiologyChildren's Hospital of PhiladelphiaPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
| | - Huiying Kang
- Department of Radiology, Beijing Children's HospitalCapital Medical UniversityBeijingChina
| | - Kay L. Sindabizera
- Department of RadiologyChildren's Hospital of PhiladelphiaPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
| | - Shuwei Liu
- Research Center for Sectional and Imaging AnatomyShandong University School of MedicineJinanShandongChina
| | - Hao Huang
- Department of RadiologyChildren's Hospital of PhiladelphiaPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
- Department of Radiology, Perelman School of MedicineUniversity of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaPennsylvaniaUSA
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Meisler SL, Gabrieli JDE, Christodoulou JA. White matter microstructural plasticity associated with educational intervention in reading disability. IMAGING NEUROSCIENCE (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2024; 2:10.1162/imag_a_00108. [PMID: 38974814 PMCID: PMC11225775 DOI: 10.1162/imag_a_00108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/09/2024]
Abstract
Children's reading progress typically slows during extended breaks in formal education, such as summer vacations. This stagnation can be especially concerning for children with reading difficulties or disabilities, such as dyslexia, because of the potential to exacerbate the skills gap between them and their peers. Reading interventions can prevent skill loss and even lead to appreciable gains in reading ability during the summer. Longitudinal studies relating intervention response to brain changes can reveal educationally relevant insights into rapid learning-driven brain plasticity. The current work focused on reading outcomes and white matter connections, which enable communication among the brain regions required for proficient reading. We collected reading scores and diffusion-weighted images at the beginning and end of summer for 41 children with reading difficulties who had completed either 1st or 2nd grade. Children were randomly assigned to either receive an intensive reading intervention (n = 26; Seeing Stars from Lindamood-Bell which emphasizes orthographic fluency) or be deferred to a wait-list group (n = 15), enabling us to analyze how white matter properties varied across a wide spectrum of skill development and regression trajectories. On average, the intervention group had larger gains in reading compared to the non-intervention group, who declined in reading scores. Improvements on a proximal measure of orthographic processing (but not other more distal reading measures) were associated with decreases in mean diffusivity within core reading brain circuitry (left arcuate fasciculus and left inferior longitudinal fasciculus) and increases in fractional anisotropy in the left corticospinal tract. Our findings suggest that responses to intensive reading instruction are related predominantly to white matter plasticity in tracts most associated with reading.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steven L. Meisler
- Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States
| | - John D. E. Gabrieli
- Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Cambridge, MA, United States
| | - Joanna A. Christodoulou
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Cambridge, MA, United States
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Professions, Charlestown, MA, United States
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Robinson TD, Chad JA, Sun YL, Chang PTH, Chen JJ. Developmental order, fibre caliber, and vascularization predict tract-wise declines: Testing retrogenesis and physiological predictions in white matter aging. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.01.20.576373. [PMID: 38328223 PMCID: PMC10849490 DOI: 10.1101/2024.01.20.576373] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/09/2024]
Abstract
To understand the consistently observed spatial distribution of white-matter (WM) aging, developmentally driven theories of retrogenesis have gained traction, positing that the order WM development predicts declines. Regions that develop first are often expected to deteriorate the last, i.e. "last-in-first-out". Alternatively, regions which develop most rapidly may also decline most rapidly in aging, or the "gains-predict-loss" model. The validity of such theories remains uncertain, in part due to lack of clarity on the definition of developmental order. Our recent findings also suggest that WM degeneration may vary by physiological parameters such as perfusion. Furthermore, it is informative to link perfusion to fibre metabolic need, which varies with fibre size. Here we address the question of whether WM degeneration is determined by development trajectory or physiological state across both microstructural and perfusion measures using data drawn from the Human Connectome Project in Aging (HCP-A). Our results indicate that developmental order of tract myelination provides the strongest support for the retrogenesis hypothesis, with the last to complete myelination the first to decline. Moreover, higher mean axon diameter and lower macrovascular density are associated with lower degrees of WM degeneration across measures. Tract perfusion, in turn also tends to be higher and the arterial transit time longer for tracts that appear first. These findings suggest that WM degeneration in different tracts may be governed by their developmental trajectories and physiology, and ultimately influenced by each tract's metabolic demand.
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Imai T, Sakamoto K, Hasegawa T, Shioda Y, Tsutsumi Y, Sakaue S, Imamura T, Morimoto A, Iehara T. Cerebellar peduncle damage in Langerhans cell histiocytosis-associated neurodegenerative disease revealed by diffusion tensor imaging. Neuroradiology 2024; 66:43-54. [PMID: 37983002 DOI: 10.1007/s00234-023-03249-z] [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: 06/30/2023] [Accepted: 11/12/2023] [Indexed: 11/21/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE To confirm the hypothesis that brain white matter damage is involved in the pathogenesis and disease progression of Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH)-associated neurodegenerative disease (ND), we aimed to analyze pediatric patients with LCH using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). METHODS We enrolled 33 patients with LCH and obtained 33 DTI datasets. Using DTI-based tractography, fractional anisotropy (FA), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD) were measured in the cerebral and cerebellar white matter tracts. The participants were divided into three groups-non-ND, ND without clinical symptoms (r-ND), and ND with clinical symptoms (c-ND)-according to their clinical status during the examination with DTI. We compared the DTI parameters in white matter tracts were compared among the three groups. RESULTS In the order of non-ND, r-ND, and c-ND groups, the FA in superior cerebellar peduncle (SCP) and middle cerebellar peduncle (MCP) significantly decreased, the ADC, AD, and RD of MCP, and the RD of SCP were significantly elevated (FA-SCP; p < 0.001, FA-MCP; p = 0.026, ADC-MCP; p < 0.001, AD-MCP; p = 0.002, RD-MCP; p = 0.003, and RD-SCP; p = 0.018). Furthermore, in the simple linear regression analysis, the FA, ADC, AD, and RD values in the MCP and the FA value in the SCP were significantly influenced by the presence of neurological symptoms and ND findings on MRI (all p < 0.001). CONCLUSION In LCH-ND, we identified microstructural damage in the SCP and MCP. DTI parameters in these tracts may help monitor LCH-ND; therefore, future studies are required to validate these results in a large cohort.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomohiko Imai
- Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, 465 Kajii-Cho, Kawaramachi-Hirokoji, Kamigyo-Ku, Kyoto, 602-8566, Japan
| | - Kenichi Sakamoto
- Departments of Pediatrics, Shiga University of Medical Science, Shiga, Japan
| | - Tatsuji Hasegawa
- Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, 465 Kajii-Cho, Kawaramachi-Hirokoji, Kamigyo-Ku, Kyoto, 602-8566, Japan.
| | - Yoko Shioda
- Departments of Pediatrics, Children's Cancer Center, National Center for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Yoshiyuki Tsutsumi
- Departments of Radiology, Children's Cancer Center, National Center for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Satoshi Sakaue
- Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, 465 Kajii-Cho, Kawaramachi-Hirokoji, Kamigyo-Ku, Kyoto, 602-8566, Japan
| | - Toshihiko Imamura
- Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, 465 Kajii-Cho, Kawaramachi-Hirokoji, Kamigyo-Ku, Kyoto, 602-8566, Japan
| | - Akira Morimoto
- Departments of Pediatrics, Showa Inan General Hospital, Komagane, Japan
| | - Tomoko Iehara
- Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, 465 Kajii-Cho, Kawaramachi-Hirokoji, Kamigyo-Ku, Kyoto, 602-8566, Japan
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Lin R, Gholipour A, Thiran JP, Karimi D, Kebiri H, Cuadra MB. CROSS-AGE AND CROSS-SITE DOMAIN SHIFT IMPACTS ON DEEP LEARNING-BASED WHITE MATTER FIBER ESTIMATION IN NEWBORN AND BABY BRAINS. ARXIV 2023:arXiv:2312.14773v1. [PMID: 38196752 PMCID: PMC10775359] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/11/2024]
Abstract
Deep learning models have shown great promise in estimating tissue microstructure from limited diffusion magnetic resonance imaging data. However, these models face domain shift challenges when test and train data are from different scanners and protocols, or when the models are applied to data with inherent variations such as the developing brains of infants and children scanned at various ages. Several techniques have been proposed to address some of these challenges, such as data harmonization or domain adaptation in the adult brain. However, those techniques remain unexplored for the estimation of fiber orientation distribution functions in the rapidly developing brains of infants. In this work, we extensively investigate the age effect and domain shift within and across two different cohorts of 201 newborns and 165 babies using the Method of Moments and fine-tuning strategies. Our results show that reduced variations in the microstructural development of babies in comparison to newborns directly impact the deep learning models' cross-age performance. We also demonstrate that a small number of target domain samples can significantly mitigate domain shift problems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rizhong Lin
- Signal Processing Laboratory 5 (LTS5), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- College of Electronic and Information Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Ali Gholipour
- Computational Radiology Laboratory, Department of Radiology, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Jean-Philippe Thiran
- Signal Processing Laboratory 5 (LTS5), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging, Switzerland
| | - Davood Karimi
- Computational Radiology Laboratory, Department of Radiology, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Hamza Kebiri
- Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging, Switzerland
| | - Meritxell Bach Cuadra
- CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging, Switzerland
- Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland
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Duanmu X, Wen J, Tan S, Guo T, Zhou C, Wu H, Wu J, Cao Z, Liu X, Chen J, Wu C, Qin J, Gu L, Yan Y, Zhang B, Zhang M, Guan X, Xu X. Aberrant dentato-rubro-thalamic pathway in action tremor but not rest tremor: A multi-modality magnetic resonance imaging study. CNS Neurosci Ther 2023; 29:4160-4171. [PMID: 37408389 PMCID: PMC10651946 DOI: 10.1111/cns.14339] [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: 03/08/2023] [Revised: 05/14/2023] [Accepted: 06/24/2023] [Indexed: 07/07/2023] Open
Abstract
AIMS The purpose of this study was to clarify the dentato-rubro-thalamic (DRT) pathway in action tremor in comparison to normal controls (NC) and disease controls (i.e., rest tremor) by using multi-modality magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). METHODS This study included 40 essential tremor (ET) patients, 57 Parkinson's disease (PD) patients (29 with rest tremor, 28 without rest tremor), and 41 NC. We used multi-modality MRI to comprehensively assess major nuclei and fiber tracts of the DRT pathway, which included decussating DRT tract (d-DRTT) and non-decussating DRT tract (nd-DRTT), and compared the differences in DRT pathway components between action and rest tremor. RESULTS Bilateral dentate nucleus (DN) in the ET group had excessive iron deposition compared with the NC group. Compared with the NC group, significantly decreased mean diffusivity and radial diffusivity were observed in the left nd-DRTT in the ET group, which were negatively correlated with tremor severity. No significant difference in each component of the DRT pathway was observed between the PD subgroup or the PD and NC. CONCLUSION Aberrant changes in the DRT pathway may be specific to action tremor and were indicating that action tremor may be related to pathological overactivation of the DRT pathway.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaojie Duanmu
- Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Jiaqi Wen
- Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Sijia Tan
- Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Tao Guo
- Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Cheng Zhou
- Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Haoting Wu
- Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Jingjing Wu
- Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Zhengye Cao
- Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Xiaocao Liu
- Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Jingwen Chen
- Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Chenqing Wu
- Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Jianmei Qin
- Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Luyan Gu
- Department of Neurology, The Second Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Yaping Yan
- Department of Neurology, The Second Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Baorong Zhang
- Department of Neurology, The Second Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Minming Zhang
- Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Xiaojun Guan
- Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
| | - Xiaojun Xu
- Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated HospitalZhejiang University School of MedicineHangzhouChina
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Weber CF, Lake EMR, Haider SP, Mozayan A, Bobba PS, Mukherjee P, Scheinost D, Constable RT, Ment L, Payabvash S. Autism spectrum disorder-specific changes in white matter connectome edge density based on functionally defined nodes. Front Neurosci 2023; 17:1285396. [PMID: 38075286 PMCID: PMC10702224 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1285396] [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: 08/29/2023] [Accepted: 10/30/2023] [Indexed: 02/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with both functional and microstructural connectome disruptions. We deployed a novel methodology using functionally defined nodes to guide white matter (WM) tractography and identify ASD-related microstructural connectome changes across the lifespan. Methods We used diffusion tensor imaging and clinical data from four studies in the national database for autism research (NDAR) including 155 infants, 102 toddlers, 230 adolescents, and 96 young adults - of whom 264 (45%) were diagnosed with ASD. We applied cortical nodes from a prior fMRI study identifying regions related to symptom severity scores and used these seeds to construct WM fiber tracts as connectome Edge Density (ED) maps. Resulting ED maps were assessed for between-group differences using voxel-wise and tract-based analysis. We then examined the association of ASD diagnosis with ED driven from functional nodes generated from different sensitivity thresholds. Results In ED derived from functionally guided tractography, we identified ASD-related changes in infants (pFDR ≤ 0.001-0.483). Overall, more wide-spread ASD-related differences were detectable in ED based on functional nodes with positive symptom correlation than negative correlation to ASD, and stricter thresholds for functional nodes resulted in stronger correlation with ASD among infants (z = -6.413 to 6.666, pFDR ≤ 0.001-0.968). Voxel-wise analysis revealed wide-spread ED reductions in central WM tracts of toddlers, adolescents, and adults. Discussion We detected early changes of aberrant WM development in infants developing ASD when generating microstructural connectome ED map with cortical nodes defined by functional imaging. These were not evident when applying structurally defined nodes, suggesting that functionally guided DTI-based tractography can help identify early ASD-related WM disruptions between cortical regions exhibiting abnormal connectivity patterns later in life. Furthermore, our results suggest a benefit of involving functionally informed nodes in diffusion imaging-based probabilistic tractography, and underline that different age cohorts can benefit from age- and brain development-adapted image processing protocols.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clara F Weber
- Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, New Haven, CT, United States
- Social Neuroscience Lab, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Lübeck University, Lübeck, Germany
- Center of Brain, Behavior and Metabolism (CBBM), Lübeck University, Lübeck, Germany
| | - Evelyn M R Lake
- Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Stefan P Haider
- Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, New Haven, CT, United States
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Ali Mozayan
- Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Pratheek S Bobba
- Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Pratik Mukherjee
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States
| | - Dustin Scheinost
- Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Robert T Constable
- Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Laura Ment
- Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics and Neurology, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Seyedmehdi Payabvash
- Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, New Haven, CT, United States
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Faraji R, Ganji Z, Zamanpour SA, Nikparast F, Akbari-Lalimi H, Zare H. Impaired white matter integrity in infants and young children with autism spectrum disorder: What evidence does diffusion tensor imaging provide? Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging 2023; 335:111711. [PMID: 37741094 DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2023.111711] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/26/2022] [Revised: 02/26/2023] [Accepted: 08/26/2023] [Indexed: 09/25/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Abnormal functional connections are associated with impaired white matter tract integrity in the brain. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a promising method for evaluating white matter integrity in infants and young children. This work aims to shed light on the location and nature of the decrease in white matter integrity. METHODS Here, the results of 19 studies have been presented that investigated white matter integrity in infants and young children (6 months to 12 years) with autism using diffusion tensor imaging. RESULTS In most of the reviewed studies, an increase in Fractional Anisotropy (FA) and a decrease in Radial Diffusivity (RD) were reported in Corpus Callosum (CC), Uncinate Fasciculus (UF), Cingulum (Cg), Inferior Longitudinal Fasciculus (ILF), and Superior Longitudinal Fasciculus (SLF), and in the Inferior Fronto-Occipital Fasciculus (IFOF) tract, a decrease in FA and an increase in RD were reported. CONCLUSION In the reviewed articles, except for one study, the diffusion indices were different compared to the control group.
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Affiliation(s)
- Reyhane Faraji
- Medical Physics Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
| | - Zohreh Ganji
- Medical Physics Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
| | - Seyed Amir Zamanpour
- Medical Physics Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
| | - Farzaneh Nikparast
- Medical Physics Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
| | - Hossein Akbari-Lalimi
- Medical Physics Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
| | - Hoda Zare
- Medical Physics Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran; Department of Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
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10
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Grotheer M, Bloom D, Kruper J, Richie-Halford A, Zika S, Aguilera González VA, Yeatman JD, Grill-Spector K, Rokem A. Human white matter myelinates faster in utero than ex utero. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2303491120. [PMID: 37549280 PMCID: PMC10438384 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2303491120] [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: 03/02/2023] [Accepted: 06/27/2023] [Indexed: 08/09/2023] Open
Abstract
The formation of myelin, the fatty sheath that insulates nerve fibers, is critical for healthy brain function. A fundamental open question is what impact being born has on myelin growth. To address this, we evaluated a large (n = 300) cross-sectional sample of newborns from the Developing Human Connectome Project (dHCP). First, we developed software for the automated identification of 20 white matter bundles in individual newborns that is well suited for large samples. Next, we fit linear models that quantify how T1w/T2w (a myelin-sensitive imaging contrast) changes over time at each point along the bundles. We found faster growth of T1w/T2w along the lengths of all bundles before birth than right after birth. Further, in a separate longitudinal sample of preterm infants (N = 34), we found lower T1w/T2w than in full-term peers measured at the same age. By applying the linear models fit on the cross-section sample to the longitudinal sample of preterm infants, we find that their delay in T1w/T2w growth is well explained by the amount of time they spent developing in utero and ex utero. These results suggest that white matter myelinates faster in utero than ex utero. The reduced rate of myelin growth after birth, in turn, explains lower myelin content in individuals born preterm and could account for long-term cognitive, neurological, and developmental consequences of preterm birth. We hypothesize that closely matching the environment of infants born preterm to what they would have experienced in the womb may reduce delays in myelin growth and hence improve developmental outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mareike Grotheer
- Department of Psychology, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg35039, Germany
- Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, Philipps-Universität Marburg and Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Marburg35039, Germany
| | - David Bloom
- Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA98105
- eScience Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA98105
| | - John Kruper
- Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA98105
- eScience Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA98105
| | - Adam Richie-Halford
- Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA98105
- eScience Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA98105
| | - Stephanie Zika
- Department of Psychology, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg35039, Germany
- Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, Philipps-Universität Marburg and Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Marburg35039, Germany
| | - Vicente A. Aguilera González
- Department of Psychology, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg35039, Germany
- Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, Philipps-Universität Marburg and Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Marburg35039, Germany
| | - Jason D. Yeatman
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
- Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
- Graduate School of Education, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
- Division of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA94305
| | - Kalanit Grill-Spector
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
- Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
| | - Ariel Rokem
- Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA98105
- eScience Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA98105
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11
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Schneider N, Mainardi F, Budisavljevic S, Rolands M, Deoni S. Associations between Early Life Nutrient Intakes and Brain Maturation Show Developmental Dynamics from Infancy to Toddlerhood: A Neuroimaging Observation Study. J Nutr 2023; 153:897-908. [PMID: 36931756 PMCID: PMC10196598 DOI: 10.1016/j.tjnut.2023.01.017] [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: 09/13/2022] [Revised: 12/23/2022] [Accepted: 01/10/2023] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Myelin imaging has increasingly been applied to study the impact of nutrition on brain development in recent years. Although individual dynamics for nutrient intakes and myelin trajectories previously have been investigated across childhood, the longitudinal interaction between both remains unclear in typically developed children. OBJECTIVES The objective of this work was to explore the developmental dynamics of nutrient-myelin interactions from infancy to early childhood using myelin imaging as a marker for brain maturation. METHODS Brain neuroimaging (1 scan per child) and dietary nutrient intake data were analyzed for 88 nutrients from 293 children (127 female, 62% White) from a longitudinal cohort study in the United States. A sliding window approach was used to investigate correlations between nutrient intakes and brain myelination over a continuous set of age windows. Image processing techniques (Sobel-filter vertical edge detection) were applied to determine age windows with unique association profiles, providing novel insight into how these relationships change with child age. RESULTS We identified 3 nutrient-myelin windows covering the age range of 1-5 y: window 1 from 6 to 20 mo with 60% positive nutrient correlations, window 2 from 20 to 30 mo with 20% positive correlations, and window 3 from 30 to 60 mo with 37% positive correlations. The windows are aligned with reported myelin and white matter dynamics that change in the first 5 y from fast and steep (window 1) to continued but slower growth (window 3), with window 2 possibly representing the inflection period. CONCLUSIONS To our knowledge, this is the first study in typically developing children demonstrating the developmental dynamics between early life nutrient intakes and brain maturation in toddlerhood. The knowledge can be applied for identifying targeted and brain-stage-appropriate nutritional interventions for this critical stage of brain development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nora Schneider
- Brain Health Department, Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences, Société des Produits Nestlé SA, Vers-Chez-les-Blanc, Lausanne, Switzerland.
| | - Fabio Mainardi
- Applied Data Analytics Group, Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences, Société des Produits Nestlé SA, Vers-Chez-les-Blanc, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Sanja Budisavljevic
- Brain Health Department, Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences, Société des Produits Nestlé SA, Vers-Chez-les-Blanc, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Maryann Rolands
- Nutrition Science Group, Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences, Société des Produits Nestlé SA, Vers-Chez-les-Blanc, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Sean Deoni
- Advanced Baby Imaging Lab, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI, USA; Department of Radiology, Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University, Providence, RI, USA; Spinn Neuroscience, Seattle, WA, USA
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12
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Zhu T, Simonetti A, Ouyang M, Kurian S, Saxena J, Soares JC, Saxena K, Huang H. Disrupted white matter microstructure correlates with impulsivity in children and adolescents with bipolar disorder. J Psychiatr Res 2023; 158:71-80. [PMID: 36577236 PMCID: PMC9898209 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.12.033] [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: 07/11/2022] [Revised: 11/29/2022] [Accepted: 12/20/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Altered white matter (WM) microstructure likely occurs in children with bipolar disorder (BD) with impulsivity representing one of the core features. However, altered WM microstructures and their age-related trendlines in children with BD and those at high-risk of developing BD, as well as correlations of WM microstructures with impulsivity, have been poorly investigated. In this study, diffusion MRI, cognitive, and impulsivity assessments were obtained from children/adolescents diagnosed with BD, offspring of individuals with BD (high-risk BD) and age-matched healthy controls. A novel atlas-based WM skeleton measurement approach was used to quantify WM microstructural integrity with all diffusion-tensor-imaging (DTI) metrics including fractional anisotropy, axial, mean and radial diffusivity to survey entire WM tracts and ameliorate partial volume effects. Among all DTI-derived metric measures, radial diffusivity quantifying WM myelination was found significantly higher primarily in corpus callosum and in the corona radiata in children with BD compared to controls. Distinguished from age-related progressively decreasing diffusivities and increasing fractional anisotropy in healthy controls, flattened age-related trendlines were found in BD group, and intermediate developmental rates were observed in high-risk group. Larger radial diffusivity in the corpus callosum and corona radiata significantly correlated with shorter response times to affective words that indicate higher impulsivity in the BD group, whereas no such correlation was found in the healthy control group. This work corroborates the progressive nature of pediatric BD and suggests that WM microstructural disruption involved in affective regulation and sensitive to impulsivity may serve as a biomarker of pediatric BD progression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tianjia Zhu
- Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Department of Bioengineering, School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Alessio Simonetti
- Department of Neuroscience, Section of Psychiatry, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario "Agostino Gemelli" IRCCS, Rome, Italy; Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Minhui Ouyang
- Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Sherin Kurian
- Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA; Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Johanna Saxena
- Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA; Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Jair C Soares
- Department of Psychiatry, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Kirti Saxena
- Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA; Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX, USA.
| | - Hao Huang
- Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
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13
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Ahmad S, Wu Y, Wu Z, Thung KH, Liu S, Lin W, Li G, Wang L, Yap PT. Multifaceted atlases of the human brain in its infancy. Nat Methods 2023; 20:55-64. [PMID: 36585454 PMCID: PMC9834057 DOI: 10.1038/s41592-022-01703-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2022] [Accepted: 10/25/2022] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Brain atlases are spatial references for integrating, processing, and analyzing brain features gathered from different individuals, sources, and scales. Here we introduce a collection of joint surface-volume atlases that chart postnatal development of the human brain in a spatiotemporally dense manner from two weeks to two years of age. Our month-specific atlases chart normative patterns and capture key traits of early brain development and are therefore conducive to identifying aberrations from normal developmental trajectories. These atlases will enhance our understanding of early structural and functional development by facilitating the mapping of diverse features of the infant brain to a common reference frame for precise multifaceted quantification of cortical and subcortical changes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sahar Ahmad
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Ye Wu
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Zhengwang Wu
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Kim-Han Thung
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Siyuan Liu
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Weili Lin
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Gang Li
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Li Wang
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Pew-Thian Yap
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Research Imaging Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
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14
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Kirschen MP, Vossough A. Introducing advanced neuroimaging into pediatric post-arrest neuroprognostication. Resuscitation 2023; 182:109657. [PMID: 36481241 DOI: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2022.11.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2022] [Accepted: 11/25/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Matthew P Kirschen
- Departments of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Neurology and Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Arastoo Vossough
- Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States
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15
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Hoffman LJ, Ngo CT, Canada KL, Pasternak O, Zhang F, Riggins T, Olson IR. The fornix supports episodic memory during childhood. Cereb Cortex 2022; 32:5388-5403. [PMID: 35169831 PMCID: PMC9712741 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhac022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2021] [Revised: 01/12/2022] [Accepted: 01/13/2022] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Episodic memory relies on the coordination of widespread brain regions that reconstruct spatiotemporal details of an episode. These topologically dispersed brain regions can rapidly communicate through structural pathways. Research in animal and human lesion studies implicate the fornix-the major output pathway of the hippocampus-in supporting various aspects of episodic memory. Because episodic memory undergoes marked changes in early childhood, we tested the link between the fornix and episodic memory in an age window of robust memory development (ages 4-8 years). Children were tested on the stories subtest from the Children's Memory Scale, a temporal order memory task, and a source memory task. Fornix streamlines were reconstructed using probabilistic tractography to estimate fornix microstructure. In addition, we measured fornix macrostructure and computed free water. To assess selectivity of our findings, we also reconstructed the uncinate fasciculus. Findings show that children's memory increases from ages 4 to 8 and that fornix micro- and macrostructure increases between ages 4 and 8. Children's memory performance across nearly every memory task correlated with individual differences in fornix, but not uncinate fasciculus, white matter. These findings suggest that the fornix plays an important role in supporting the development of episodic memory, and potentially semantic memory, in early childhood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linda J Hoffman
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, 1701 North 13th St., Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
| | - Chi T Ngo
- Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany
| | - Kelsey L Canada
- Institute of Gerontology, Wayne State University, 87 East Ferry St., Detroit, MI 48202, USA
| | - Ofer Pasternak
- Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis St., Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis St., Boston MA 02115, USA
| | - Fan Zhang
- Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis St., Boston MA 02115, USA
| | - Tracy Riggins
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, 4094 Campus Dr., College Park, MD, 20742, USA
| | - Ingrid R Olson
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, 1701 North 13th St., Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
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16
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Liang W, Yu Q, Wang W, Dhollander T, Suluba E, Li Z, Xu F, Hu Y, Tang Y, Liu S. A comparative study of the superior longitudinal fasciculus subdivisions between neonates and young adults. Brain Struct Funct 2022; 227:2713-2730. [PMID: 36114859 PMCID: PMC9618541 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-022-02565-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2022] [Accepted: 09/03/2022] [Indexed: 12/04/2022]
Abstract
The superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) is a complex associative tract comprising three distinct subdivisions in the frontoparietal cortex, each of which has its own anatomical connectivity and functional roles. However, many studies on white matter development, hampered by limitations of data quality and tractography methods, treated the SLF as a single entity. The exact anatomical trajectory and developmental status of each sub-bundle of the human SLF in neonates remain poorly understood. Here, we compared the morphological and microstructural characteristics of each branch of the SLF at two ages using diffusion MRI data from 40 healthy neonates and 40 adults. A multi-shell multi-tissue constrained spherical deconvolution (MSMT-CSD) algorithm was used to ensure the successful separation of the three SLF branches (SLF I, SLF II and SLF III). Then, between-group differences in the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) metrics were investigated in all the SLF branches. Meanwhile, Mahalanobis distances based on all the diffusion metrics were computed to quantify the maturation of neonatal SLF branches, considering the adult brain as the reference. The SLF branches, excluding SLF II, had similar fibre morphology and connectivity between the neonatal and adult groups. The Mahalanobis distance values further supported the notion of heterogeneous maturation among SLF branches. The greatest Mahalanobis distance was observed in SLF II, possibly indicating that it was the least mature. Our findings provide a new anatomical basis for the early diagnosis and treatment of diseases caused by abnormal neonatal SLF development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenjia Liang
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders, Shandong Key Laboratory of Digital Human and Clinical Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, China
- Institute of Brain and Brain-Inspired Science, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, China
| | - Qiaowen Yu
- Department of Medical Imaging, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, Shandong, 250021, China
| | - Wenjun Wang
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders, Shandong Key Laboratory of Digital Human and Clinical Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, China
- Institute of Brain and Brain-Inspired Science, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, China
| | - Thijs Dhollander
- Developmental Imaging, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Emmanuel Suluba
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders, Shandong Key Laboratory of Digital Human and Clinical Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, China
- Institute of Brain and Brain-Inspired Science, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, China
| | - Zhuoran Li
- Department of Ultrasound, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, Shandong, 250021, China
| | - Feifei Xu
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders, Shandong Key Laboratory of Digital Human and Clinical Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, China
- Institute of Brain and Brain-Inspired Science, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, China
| | - Yang Hu
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders, Shandong Key Laboratory of Digital Human and Clinical Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, China
- Institute of Brain and Brain-Inspired Science, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, China
| | - Yuchun Tang
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders, Shandong Key Laboratory of Digital Human and Clinical Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, China.
- Institute of Brain and Brain-Inspired Science, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, China.
| | - Shuwei Liu
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders, Shandong Key Laboratory of Digital Human and Clinical Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, China.
- Institute of Brain and Brain-Inspired Science, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, China.
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17
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Weber CF, Lake EMR, Haider SP, Mozayan A, Mukherjee P, Scheinost D, Bamford NS, Ment L, Constable T, Payabvash S. Age-dependent white matter microstructural disintegrity in autism spectrum disorder. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:957018. [PMID: 36161157 PMCID: PMC9490315 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.957018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2022] [Accepted: 08/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
There has been increasing evidence of White Matter (WM) microstructural disintegrity and connectome disruption in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We evaluated the effects of age on WM microstructure by examining Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) metrics and connectome Edge Density (ED) in a large dataset of ASD and control patients from different age cohorts. N = 583 subjects from four studies from the National Database of Autism Research were included, representing four different age groups: (1) A Longitudinal MRI Study of Infants at Risk of Autism [infants, median age: 7 (interquartile range 1) months, n = 155], (2) Biomarkers of Autism at 12 months [toddlers, 32 (11)m, n = 102], (3) Multimodal Developmental Neurogenetics of Females with ASD [adolescents, 13.1 (5.3) years, n = 230], (4) Atypical Late Neurodevelopment in Autism [young adults, 19.1 (10.7)y, n = 96]. For each subject, we created Fractional Anisotropy (FA), Mean- (MD), Radial- (RD), and Axial Diffusivity (AD) maps as well as ED maps. We performed voxel-wise and tract-based analyses to assess the effects of age, ASD diagnosis and sex on DTI metrics and connectome ED. We also optimized, trained, tested, and validated different combinations of machine learning classifiers and dimensionality reduction algorithms for prediction of ASD diagnoses based on tract-based DTI and ED metrics. There is an age-dependent increase in FA and a decline in MD and RD across WM tracts in all four age cohorts, as well as an ED increase in toddlers and adolescents. After correction for age and sex, we found an ASD-related decrease in FA and ED only in adolescents and young adults, but not in infants or toddlers. While DTI abnormalities were mostly limited to the corpus callosum, connectomes showed a more widespread ASD-related decrease in ED. Finally, the best performing machine-leaning classification model achieved an area under the receiver operating curve of 0.70 in an independent validation cohort. Our results suggest that ASD-related WM microstructural disintegrity becomes evident in adolescents and young adults-but not in infants and toddlers. The ASD-related decrease in ED demonstrates a more widespread involvement of the connectome than DTI metrics, with the most striking differences being localized in the corpus callosum.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clara F. Weber
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States,Social Neuroscience Lab, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Lübeck University, Lübeck, Germany
| | - Evelyn M. R. Lake
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Stefan P. Haider
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States,Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
| | - Ali Mozayan
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Pratik Mukherjee
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States
| | - Dustin Scheinost
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Nigel S. Bamford
- Departments of Pediatrics, Neurology, Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Laura Ment
- Departments of Pediatrics, Neurology, Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Todd Constable
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States
| | - Seyedmehdi Payabvash
- Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States,*Correspondence: Seyedmehdi Payabvash,
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18
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Kumpulainen V, Merisaari H, Copeland A, Silver E, Pulli EP, Lewis JD, Saukko E, Saunavaara J, Karlsson L, Karlsson H, Tuulari JJ. Effect of number of diffusion encoding directions in Diffusion Metrics of 5-year-olds using Tract-Based Spatial Statistical analysis. Eur J Neurosci 2022; 56:4843-4868. [PMID: 35904522 PMCID: PMC9545012 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15785] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2021] [Revised: 06/21/2022] [Accepted: 07/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Methodological aspects and effects of different imaging parameters on DTI (diffusion tensor imaging) results and their reproducibility have been recently studied comprehensively in adult populations. Although MR imaging of children's brains has become common, less interest has been focussed on researching whether adult‐based optimised parameters and pre‐processing protocols can be reliably applied to paediatric populations. Furthermore, DTI scalar values of preschool aged children are rarely reported. We gathered a DTI dataset from 5‐year‐old children (N = 49) to study the effect of the number of diffusion‐encoding directions on the reliability of resultant scalar values with TBSS (tract‐based spatial statistics) method. Additionally, the potential effect of within‐scan head motion on DTI scalars was evaluated. Reducing the number of diffusion‐encoding directions deteriorated both the accuracy and the precision of all DTI scalar values. To obtain reliable scalar values, a minimum of 18 directions for TBSS was required. For TBSS fractional anisotropy values, the intraclass correlation coefficient with two‐way random‐effects model (ICC[2,1]) for the subsets of 6 to 66 directions ranged between 0.136 [95%CI 0.0767;0.227] and 0.639 [0.542;0.740], whereas the corresponding values for subsets of 18 to 66 directions were 0.868 [0.815;0.913] and 0.995 [0.993;0.997]. Following the exclusion of motion‐corrupted volumes, minor residual motion did not associate with the scalar values. A minimum of 18 diffusion directions is recommended to result in reliable DTI scalar results with TBSS. We suggest gathering extra directions in paediatric DTI to enable exclusion of volumes with motion artefacts and simultaneously preserve the overall data quality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Venla Kumpulainen
- FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Harri Merisaari
- FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.,Department of Radiology, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
| | - Anni Copeland
- FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Eero Silver
- FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Elmo P Pulli
- FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - John D Lewis
- Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
| | - Ekaterina Saukko
- Department of Radiology, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
| | - Jani Saunavaara
- Department of Medical Physics, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Linnea Karlsson
- FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.,Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Turku, Finland.,Department of Psychiatry, Turku University Hospital & University of Turku, Turku, Finland.,Centre for Population Health Research, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Hasse Karlsson
- FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.,Department of Psychiatry, Turku University Hospital & University of Turku, Turku, Finland.,Centre for Population Health Research, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Jetro J Tuulari
- FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.,Department of Psychiatry, Turku University Hospital & University of Turku, Turku, Finland.,Turku Collegium for Science and Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
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19
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White matter myelination during early infancy is linked to spatial gradients and myelin content at birth. Nat Commun 2022; 13:997. [PMID: 35194018 PMCID: PMC8863985 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28326-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2021] [Accepted: 01/12/2022] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Development of myelin, a fatty sheath that insulates nerve fibers, is critical for brain function. Myelination during infancy has been studied with histology, but postmortem data cannot evaluate the longitudinal trajectory of white matter development. Here, we obtained longitudinal diffusion MRI and quantitative MRI measures of longitudinal relaxation rate (R1) of white matter in 0, 3 and 6 months-old human infants, and developed an automated method to identify white matter bundles and quantify their properties in each infant's brain. We find that R1 increases from newborns to 6-months-olds in all bundles. R1 development is nonuniform: there is faster development in white matter that is less mature in newborns, and development rate increases along inferior-to-superior as well as anterior-to-posterior spatial gradients. As R1 is linearly related to myelin fraction in white matter bundles, these findings open new avenues to elucidate typical and atypical white matter myelination in early infancy.
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20
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Ouyang M, Peng Y, Sotardi S, Hu D, Zhu T, Cheng H, Huang H. Flattened Structural Network Changes and Association of Hyperconnectivity With Symptom Severity in 2-7-Year-Old Children With Autism. Front Neurosci 2022; 15:757838. [PMID: 35237118 PMCID: PMC8882907 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.757838] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2021] [Accepted: 12/21/2021] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Understanding the brain differences present at the earliest possible diagnostic age for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is crucial for delineating the underlying neuropathology of the disorder. However, knowledge of brain structural network changes in the early important developmental period between 2 and 7 years of age is limited in children with ASD. In this study, we aimed to fill the knowledge gap by characterizing age-related brain structural network changes in ASD from 2 to 7 years of age, and identify sensitive network-based imaging biomarkers that are significantly correlated with the symptom severity. Diffusion MRI was acquired in 30 children with ASD and 21 typically developmental (TD) children. With diffusion MRI and quantified clinical assessment, we conducted network-based analysis and correlation between graph-theory-based measurements and symptom severity. Significant age-by-group interaction was found in global network measures and nodal efficiencies during the developmental period of 2-7 years old. Compared with significant age-related growth of the structural network in TD, relatively flattened maturational trends were observed in ASD. Hyper-connectivity in the structural network with higher global efficiency, global network strength, and nodal efficiency were observed in children with ASD. Network edge strength in ASD also demonstrated hyper-connectivity in widespread anatomical connections, including those in default-mode, frontoparietal, and sensorimotor networks. Importantly, identified higher nodal efficiencies and higher network edge strengths were significantly correlated with symptom severity in ASD. Collectively, structural networks in ASD during this early developmental period of 2-7 years of age are characterized by hyper-connectivity and slower maturation, with aberrant hyper-connectivity significantly correlated with symptom severity. These aberrant network measures may serve as imaging biomarkers for ASD from 2 to 7 years of age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Minhui Ouyang
- Department of Radiology, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States,Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Yun Peng
- Department of Radiology, Beijing Children’s Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China,*Correspondence: Yun Peng,
| | - Susan Sotardi
- Department of Radiology, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Di Hu
- Department of Radiology, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States,Department of Radiology, Beijing Children’s Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Tianjia Zhu
- Department of Radiology, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States,Department of Bioengineering, School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Hua Cheng
- Department of Radiology, Beijing Children’s Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
| | - Hao Huang
- Department of Radiology, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States,Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States,Hao Huang,
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21
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Burstein O, Geva R. The Brainstem-Informed Autism Framework: Early Life Neurobehavioral Markers. Front Integr Neurosci 2021; 15:759614. [PMID: 34858145 PMCID: PMC8631363 DOI: 10.3389/fnint.2021.759614] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/16/2021] [Accepted: 10/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have long-term implications on functioning at multiple levels. In this perspective, we offer a brainstem-informed autism framework (BIAF) that traces the protracted neurobehavioral manifestations of ASD to early life brainstem dysfunctions. Early life brainstem-mediated markers involving functions of autonomic/arousal regulation, sleep-wake homeostasis, and sensorimotor integration are delineated. Their possible contributions to the early identification of susceptible infants are discussed. We suggest that the BIAF expands our multidimensional understanding of ASD by focusing on the early involvement of brainstem systems. Importantly, we propose an integrated BIAF screener that brings about the prospect of a sensitive and reliable early life diagnostic scheme for weighing the risk for ASD. The BIAF screener could provide clinicians substantial gains in the future and may carve customized interventions long before the current DSM ASD phenotype is manifested using dyadic co-regulation of brainstem-informed autism markers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Or Burstein
- Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | - Ronny Geva
- Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
- Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
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22
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Holcomb JM, Fisicaro RA, Miller LE, Yu FF, Davenport EM, Xi Y, Urban JE, Wagner BC, Powers AK, Whitlow CT, Stitzel JD, Maldjian JA. Regional White Matter Diffusion Changes Associated with the Cumulative Tensile Strain and Strain Rate in Nonconcussed Youth Football Players. J Neurotrauma 2021; 38:2763-2771. [PMID: 34039024 PMCID: PMC8820832 DOI: 10.1089/neu.2020.7580] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship between regional white matter diffusion imaging changes and finite element strain measures in nonconcussed youth football players. Pre- and post-season diffusion-weighted imaging was performed in 102 youth football subject-seasons, in which no concussions were diagnosed. The diffusion data were normalized to the IXI template. Percent change in fractional anisotropy (%ΔFA) images were generated. Using data from the head impact telemetry system, the cumulative maximum principal strain one times strain rate (CMPS1 × SR), a measure of the cumulative tensile brain strain and strain rate for one season, was calculated for each subject. Two linear regression analyses were performed to identify significant positive or inverse relationships between CMPS1 × SR and %ΔFA within the international consortium for brain mapping white matter mask. Age, body mass index, days between pre- and post-season imaging, previous brain injury, attention disorder diagnosis, and imaging protocol were included as covariates. False discovery rate correction was used with corrected alphas of 0.025 and voxel thresholds of zero. Controlling for all covariates, a significant, positive linear relationship between %ΔFA and CMPS1 × SR was identified in the bilateral cingulum, fornix, internal capsule, external capsule, corpus callosum, corona radiata, corticospinal tract, cerebral and middle cerebellar peduncle, superior longitudinal fasciculus, and right superior fronto-occipital fasciculus. Post hoc analyses further demonstrated significant %ΔFA differences between high-strain football subjects and noncollision control athletes, no significant %ΔFA differences between low-strain subjects and noncollision control athletes, and that CMPS1 × SR significantly explained more %ΔFA variance than number of head impacts alone.
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Affiliation(s)
- James M. Holcomb
- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA
| | - Ryan A. Fisicaro
- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA
| | - Logan E. Miller
- Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA
| | - Fang F. Yu
- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA
| | | | - Yin Xi
- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA
| | - Jillian E. Urban
- Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA
| | - Ben C. Wagner
- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA
| | | | | | - Joel D. Stitzel
- Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA
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23
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Vakhtin AA, Zhang Y, Wintermark M, Ashford JW, Furst AJ. Distant histories of mild traumatic brain injury exacerbate age-related differences in white matter properties. Neurobiol Aging 2021; 107:30-41. [PMID: 34371285 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.07.002] [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: 03/02/2021] [Revised: 07/01/2021] [Accepted: 07/01/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
We examined associations of distant histories of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) with non-linear and linear trajectories of white matter (WM) properties across a wide age range (23-77). Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data obtained from 171 Veterans with histories of clinically diagnosed mTBIs and 115 controls were subjected to tractography, isolating 20 major WM tracts. Non-linear and linear effects of age on each tract's diffusion properties were examined in terms of their interactions with group (mTBI and control). The non-linear model revealed 7 tracts in which the mTBI group's DTI metrics rapidly deviated from control trajectories in middle and late adulthoods, despite the injuries having occurred in the late 20s, on average. In contrast, no interactions between prior injuries and age were detected when examining linear trajectories. Distant mTBIs may thus accelerate normal age-related trajectories of WM degeneration much later in life. As such, life-long histories of head trauma should be assessed in all patients in their mid-to-late adulthoods, whether neurologically healthy or presenting with seemingly unrelated neuropathology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrei A Vakhtin
- The Mind Research Network/Lovelace Biomedical and Environmental Research Institute, Albuquerque, NM, USA.
| | - Yu Zhang
- War Related Illness and Injury Study Center (WRIISC), Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Hospital, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Max Wintermark
- Neuroradiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - John W Ashford
- War Related Illness and Injury Study Center (WRIISC), Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Hospital, Palo Alto, CA, USA; Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Ansgar J Furst
- War Related Illness and Injury Study Center (WRIISC), Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Hospital, Palo Alto, CA, USA; Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA; Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA; Polytrauma System of Care, Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Hospital, Palo Alto, CA, USA
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24
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Chen Y, Dubey P, Müller HG, Bruchhage M, Wang JL, Deoni S. Modeling sparse longitudinal data in early neurodevelopment. Neuroimage 2021; 237:118079. [PMID: 34000395 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2020] [Revised: 04/09/2021] [Accepted: 04/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Early childhood is a period marked by rapid brain growth accompanied by cognitive and motor development. However, it remains unclear how early developmental skills relate to neuroanatomical growth across time with no growth quantile trajectories of typical brain development currently available to place and compare individual neuroanatomical development. Even though longitudinal neuroimaging data have become more common, they are often sparse, making dynamic analyses at subject level a challenging task. Using the Principal Analysis through Conditional Expectation (PACE) approach geared towards sparse longitudinal data, we investigate the evolution of gray matter, white matter and cerebrospinal fluid volumes in a cohort of 446 children between the ages of 1 and 120 months. For each child, we calculate their dynamic age-varying association between the growing brain and scores that assess cognitive functioning, applying the functional varying coefficient model. Using local Fréchet regression, we construct age-varying growth percentiles to reveal the evolution of brain development across the population. To further demonstrate its utility, we apply PACE to predict individual trajectories of brain development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yaqing Chen
- Department of Statistics, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, 95616, USA
| | - Paromita Dubey
- Department of Statistics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - Hans-Georg Müller
- Department of Statistics, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, 95616, USA
| | - Muriel Bruchhage
- Advanced Baby Imaging Lab, Hasbro Children's Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI, 02903, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, USA
| | - Jane-Ling Wang
- Department of Statistics, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, 95616, USA
| | - Sean Deoni
- Advanced Baby Imaging Lab, Hasbro Children's Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI, 02903, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, USA; Department of Radiology, Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, USA; Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Discovery & Tools, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA, USA.
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25
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Nair A, Jalal R, Liu J, Tsang T, McDonald NM, Jackson L, Ponting C, Jeste SS, Bookheimer SY, Dapretto M. Altered Thalamocortical Connectivity in 6-Week-Old Infants at High Familial Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:4191-4205. [PMID: 33866373 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2020] [Revised: 03/11/2021] [Accepted: 03/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Converging evidence from neuroimaging studies has revealed altered connectivity in cortical-subcortical networks in youth and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Comparatively little is known about the development of cortical-subcortical connectivity in infancy, before the emergence of overt ASD symptomatology. Here, we examined early functional and structural connectivity of thalamocortical networks in infants at high familial risk for ASD (HR) and low-risk controls (LR). Resting-state functional connectivity and diffusion tensor imaging data were acquired in 52 6-week-old infants. Functional connectivity was examined between 6 cortical seeds-prefrontal, motor, somatosensory, temporal, parietal, and occipital regions-and bilateral thalamus. We found significant thalamic-prefrontal underconnectivity, as well as thalamic-occipital and thalamic-motor overconnectivity in HR infants, relative to LR infants. Subsequent structural connectivity analyses also revealed atypical white matter integrity in thalamic-occipital tracts in HR infants, compared with LR infants. Notably, aberrant connectivity indices at 6 weeks predicted atypical social development between 9 and 36 months of age, as assessed with eye-tracking and diagnostic measures. These findings indicate that thalamocortical connectivity is disrupted at both the functional and structural level in HR infants as early as 6 weeks of age, providing a possible early marker of risk for ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aarti Nair
- Department of Psychology, School of Behavioral Health, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA 92354, USA
| | - Rhideeta Jalal
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Janelle Liu
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Tawny Tsang
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Nicole M McDonald
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Lisa Jackson
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Carolyn Ponting
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Shafali S Jeste
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Susan Y Bookheimer
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Mirella Dapretto
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
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26
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Ouyang M, Peng Q, Jeon T, Heyne R, Chalak L, Huang H. Diffusion-MRI-based regional cortical microstructure at birth for predicting neurodevelopmental outcomes of 2-year-olds. eLife 2020; 9:58116. [PMID: 33350380 PMCID: PMC7755384 DOI: 10.7554/elife.58116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2020] [Accepted: 12/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Cerebral cortical architecture at birth encodes regionally differential dendritic arborization and synaptic formation. It underlies behavioral emergence of 2-year-olds. Brain changes in 0-2 years are most dynamic across the lifespan. Effective prediction of future behavior with brain microstructure at birth will reveal structural basis of behavioral emergence in typical development and identify biomarkers for early detection and tailored intervention in atypical development. Here we aimed to evaluate the neonate whole-brain cortical microstructure quantified by diffusion MRI for predicting future behavior. We found that individual cognitive and language functions assessed at the age of 2 years were robustly predicted by neonate cortical microstructure using support vector regression. Remarkably, cortical regions contributing heavily to the prediction models exhibited distinctive functional selectivity for cognition and language. These findings highlight regional cortical microstructure at birth as a potential sensitive biomarker in predicting future neurodevelopmental outcomes and identifying individual risks of brain disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Minhui Ouyang
- Radiology Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, United States
| | - Qinmu Peng
- Radiology Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, United States.,Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States
| | - Tina Jeon
- Radiology Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, United States
| | - Roy Heyne
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, United States
| | - Lina Chalak
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, United States
| | - Hao Huang
- Radiology Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, United States.,Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States
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27
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Aberrant Maturation of the Uncinate Fasciculus Follows Exposure to Unpredictable Patterns of Maternal Signals. J Neurosci 2020; 41:1242-1250. [PMID: 33328295 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0374-20.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2020] [Revised: 11/25/2020] [Accepted: 12/02/2020] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Across species, unpredictable patterns of maternal behavior are emerging as novel predictors of aberrant cognitive and emotional outcomes later in life. In animal models, exposure to unpredictable patterns of maternal behavior alters brain circuit maturation and cognitive and emotional outcomes. However, whether exposure to such signals in humans alters the development of brain pathways is unknown. In mother-child dyads, we tested the hypothesis that exposure to more unpredictable maternal signals in infancy is associated with aberrant maturation of corticolimbic pathways. We focused on the uncinate fasciculus, the primary fiber bundle connecting the amygdala to the orbitofrontal cortex and a key component of the medial temporal lobe-prefrontal cortex circuit. Infant exposure to unpredictable maternal sensory signals was assessed at 6 and 12 months. Using high angular resolution diffusion imaging, we quantified the integrity of the uncinate fasciculus using generalized fractional anisotropy (GFA). Higher maternal unpredictability during infancy presaged greater uncinate fasciculus GFA in children 9-11 years of age (n = 69, 29 female). In contrast to the uncinate, GFA of a second corticolimbic projection, the hippocampal cingulum, was not associated with maternal unpredictability. Addressing the overall functional significance of the uncinate and cingulum relationships, we found that the resulting imbalance of medial temporal lobe-prefrontal cortex connectivity partially mediated the association between unpredictable maternal sensory signals and impaired episodic memory function. These results suggest that unbalanced maturation of corticolimbic circuits is a mechanism by which early unpredictable sensory signals may impact cognition later in life.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Our prior work across species demonstrated that unpredictable patterns of maternal care are associated with compromised memory function. However, the neurobiological mechanisms by which this occurs in humans remain unknown. Here, we identify an association of exposure to unpredictable patterns of maternal sensory signals with the integrity of corticolimbic circuits involved in emotion and cognition using state-of-the-art diffusion imaging techniques and analyses. We find that exposure to early unpredictability is associated with higher integrity of the uncinate fasciculus with no effect on a second corticolimbic pathway, the cingulum. The resulting imbalance of corticolimbic circuit development is a novel mediator of the association between unpredictable patterns of maternal care and poorer episodic memory.
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28
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Role of Oligodendrocytes and Myelin in the Pathophysiology of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Brain Sci 2020; 10:brainsci10120951. [PMID: 33302549 PMCID: PMC7764453 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci10120951] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2020] [Revised: 11/30/2020] [Accepted: 12/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is an early neurodevelopmental disorder that involves deficits in interpersonal communication, social interaction, and repetitive behaviors. Although ASD pathophysiology is still uncertain, alterations in the abnormal development of the frontal lobe, limbic areas, and putamen generate an imbalance between inhibition and excitation of neuronal activity. Interestingly, recent findings suggest that a disruption in neuronal connectivity is associated with neural alterations in white matter production and myelination in diverse brain regions of patients with ASD. This review is aimed to summarize the most recent evidence that supports the notion that abnormalities in the oligodendrocyte generation and axonal myelination in specific brain regions are involved in the pathophysiology of ASD. Fundamental molecular mediators of these pathological processes are also examined. Determining the role of alterations in oligodendrogenesis and myelination is a fundamental step to understand the pathophysiology of ASD and identify possible therapeutic targets.
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29
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Gropman AL, Anderson A. Novel imaging technologies for genetic diagnoses in the inborn errors of metabolism. JOURNAL OF TRANSLATIONAL GENETICS AND GENOMICS 2020; 4:429-445. [PMID: 35529470 PMCID: PMC9075742 DOI: 10.20517/jtgg.2020.09] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
Many inborn errors of metabolism and genetic disorders affect the brain. The brain biochemistry may differ from that in the periphery and is not accessible by simple blood and urine sampling. Therefore, neuroimaging has proven to be a valuable tool to not only evaluate the brain structure, but also biochemistry, blood flow and function. Neuroimaging in patients with inborn errors of metabolism can include additional sequences in addition to T1 and T2-weighted imaging because in early stages, there may be no significant findings on the routine sequnces due to the lack of sensitivity or the evolution of abnormalities lags behind the ability of the imaging to detect it. In addition, findings on T1 and T2-weighted imaging of several inborn errors of metabolism may be non-specific and be seen in other non-genetic conditions. Therefore, additional neuroimaging modalities that have been employed including diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), magnetic resonance spectroscopy, functional MRI (fMRI), functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), or positron emission tomography (PET) imaging may further inform underlying changes in myelination, biochemistry, and functional connectivity. The use of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in certain disorders may add a level of specificity depending upon the metabolite levels that are abnormal, as well as provide information about the process of brain injury (i.e., white matter, gray matter, energy deficiency, toxic buildup or depletion of key metabolites). It is even more challenging to understand how genetic or metabolic disorders contribute to short and/or long term changes in cognition which represent the downstream effects of IEMs. In order to image “cognition” or the downstream effects of a metabolic disorder on domains of brain function, more advanced techniques are required to analyze underlying fiber tracts or alternatively, methods such as fMRI enable generation of brain activation maps after both task based and resting state conditions. DTI can be used to look at changes in white matter tracks. Each imaging modality can explore an important aspect of the anatomy, physiology or biochemisty of the central nervous system. Their properties, pros and cons are discussed in this article. These imaging modalities will be discussed in the context of several inborn errors of metabolism including Galactosemia, Phenylketonruia, Maple syrup urine disease, Methylmalonic acidemia, Niemann-Pick Disease, type C1, Krabbe Disease, Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency, Sjogren Larsson syndrome, Pelizeaus-Merzbacher disease, Pyruvate dehydrogenase deficiency, Nonketotic Hyperglycinemia and Fabry disease. Space constraints do not allow mention of all the disorders in which one of these modalities has been investigated, or where it would add value to diagnosis or disease progression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea L Gropman
- Department of Neurology, Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC 20010, USA
| | - Afrouz Anderson
- Department of Research, Focus Foundation, Crofton, MD 21035, USA
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