1
|
Sagiv SK, Baker JM, Rauch S, Gao Y, Gunier RB, Mora AM, Kogut K, Bradman A, Eskenazi B, Reiss AL. Prenatal and childhood exposure to organophosphate pesticides and functional brain imaging in young adults. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2024; 242:117756. [PMID: 38016496 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.117756] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2023] [Revised: 11/15/2023] [Accepted: 11/20/2023] [Indexed: 11/30/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Early life exposure to organophosphate (OP) pesticides has been linked with poorer neurodevelopment from infancy to adolescence. In our Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS) birth cohort, we previously reported that residential proximity to OP use during pregnancy was associated with altered cortical activation using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in a small subset (n = 95) of participants at age 16 years. METHODS We administered fNIRS to 291 CHAMACOS young adults at the 18-year visit. Using covariate-adjusted regression models, we estimated associations of prenatal and childhood urinary dialkylphosphates (DAPs), non-specific OP metabolites, with cortical activation in the frontal, temporal, and parietal regions of the brain during tasks of executive function and semantic language. RESULTS There were some suggestive associations for prenatal DAPs with altered activation patterns in both the inferior frontal and inferior parietal lobes of the left hemisphere during a task of cognitive flexibility (β per ten-fold increase in DAPs = 3.37; 95% CI: -0.02, 6.77 and β = 3.43; 95% CI: 0.64, 6.22, respectively) and the inferior and superior frontal pole/dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of the right hemisphere during the letter retrieval working memory task (β = -3.10; 95% CI: -6.43, 0.22 and β = -3.67; 95% CI: -7.94, 0.59, respectively). We did not observe alterations in cortical activation with prenatal DAPs during a semantic language task or with childhood DAPs during any task. DISCUSSION We observed associations of prenatal OP concentrations with mild alterations in cortical activation during tasks of executive function. Associations with childhood exposure were null. This is reasonably consistent with studies of prenatal OPs and neuropsychological measures of attention and executive function found in CHAMACOS and other birth cohorts.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sharon K Sagiv
- Center for Environmental Research and Community Health (CERCH), School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
| | - Joseph M Baker
- Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Stephen Rauch
- Center for Environmental Research and Community Health (CERCH), School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Yuanyuan Gao
- Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Robert B Gunier
- Center for Environmental Research and Community Health (CERCH), School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Ana M Mora
- Center for Environmental Research and Community Health (CERCH), School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Katherine Kogut
- Center for Environmental Research and Community Health (CERCH), School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Asa Bradman
- Center for Environmental Research and Community Health (CERCH), School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA; Department of Public Health, University of California, Merced, CA, USA
| | - Brenda Eskenazi
- Center for Environmental Research and Community Health (CERCH), School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
| | - Allan L Reiss
- Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Aust E, Graupner ST, Günther R, Linse K, Joos M, Grosskreutz J, Prudlo J, Pannasch S, Hermann A. Impairment of oculomotor functions in patients with early to advanced amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. J Neurol 2024; 271:325-339. [PMID: 37713127 PMCID: PMC10770212 DOI: 10.1007/s00415-023-11957-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2023] [Revised: 08/17/2023] [Accepted: 08/18/2023] [Indexed: 09/16/2023]
Abstract
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) can result into an incomplete locked in state (iLIS), in which communication depends on eye tracking computer devices. Oculomotor function impairments in ALS have been reported, but there is little research, particularly with respect to patients in iLIS. In the present study, we compared reflexive and executive oculomotor function by means of an eye tracking test battery between three groups: advanced ALS patients in iLIS (n = 22), patients in early to middle ALS stages (n = 44) and healthy subjects (n = 32). Patients with ALS showed significant deteriorations in oculomotor functions, with stronger impairments in iLIS. More specifically, ALS patients produced visually guided prosaccades with longer latencies and more frequent hypometria compared to healthy subjects. Longest latencies were obtained in iLIS patients, with a stronger prolongation for vertical than for horizontal prosaccades. ALS patients made more antisaccade errors and generated antisaccades with longer latencies. Smooth pursuit was also impaired in ALS. In the earlier ALS stages, bulbar onset patients presented stronger antisaccade and smooth pursuit deficits than spinal onset patients. Our findings reveal a relevant deterioration of important oculomotor functions in ALS, which increases in iLIS. It includes impairments of reflexive eye movements to loss of executive inhibitory control, indicating a progressing pathological involvement of prefrontal, midbrain and brainstem areas. The assessment of oculomotor functions may therefore provide clinically relevant bio- and progression marker, particularly in advanced ALS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Aust
- Department of Neurology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Sven-Thomas Graupner
- Verkehrspsychologie, Fakultät Verkehrswissenschaften, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - René Günther
- Department of Neurology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
- Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE) Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Katharina Linse
- Department of Neurology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
- Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE) Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Markus Joos
- Interactive Minds Research, Interactive Minds Dresden GmbH, Dresden, Germany
| | - Julian Grosskreutz
- Precision Neurology and Cluster "Precision Medicine in Inflammation", University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
| | - Johannes Prudlo
- Department of Neurology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany
- Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE) Rostock/Greifswald, Rostock, Germany
| | - Sebastian Pannasch
- Engineering Psychology and Applied Cognitive Research, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Andreas Hermann
- Center for Transdisciplinary Neurosciences Rostock (CTNR), University Medical Center Rostock, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany.
- Translational Neurodegeneration Section "Albrecht Kossel", Department of Neurology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Abrahams S. Neuropsychological impairment in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-frontotemporal spectrum disorder. Nat Rev Neurol 2023; 19:655-667. [PMID: 37828358 DOI: 10.1038/s41582-023-00878-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/05/2023] [Indexed: 10/14/2023]
Abstract
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease with a rapid course, characterized by motor neuron dysfunction, leading to progressive disability and death. This Review, which is aimed at neurologists, psychologists and other health professionals who follow evidence-based practice relating to ALS and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), examines the neuropsychological evidence that has driven the reconceptualization of ALS as a spectrum disorder ranging from a pure motor phenotype to ALS-FTD. It focuses on changes in cognition and behaviour, which vary in severity across the spectrum: around 50% individuals with ALS are within the normal range, 15% meet the criteria for ALS-FTD, and the remaining 35% are in the mid-spectrum range with milder and more focal impairments. The cognitive impairments include deficits in verbal fluency, executive functions, social cognition and language, and apathy is the most prevalent behavioural change. The pattern and severity of cognitive and behavioural change predicts underlying regional cerebral dysfunction from brain imaging and post-mortem pathology. Our increased recognition of cognition and behaviour as part of the ALS phenotype has led to the development and standardization of assessment tools, which have been incorporated into research and clinical care. Measuring change over the course of the disease is vital for clinical trials, and neuropsychology is proving to be a biomarker for the earliest preclinical changes.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sharon Abrahams
- Human Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
- Euan MacDonald Centre for MND Research, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Oor EE, Stanford TR, Salinas E. Stimulus salience conflicts and colludes with endogenous goals during urgent choices. iScience 2023; 26:106253. [PMID: 36922998 PMCID: PMC10009283 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106253] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2022] [Revised: 12/02/2022] [Accepted: 02/16/2023] [Indexed: 02/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Selecting where to look next depends on both the salience of objects and current goals (what we are looking for), but discerning their relative contributions over the time frame of typical visuomotor decisions (200-250 ms) has been difficult. Here we investigate this problem using an urgent choice task with which the two contributions can be dissociated and tracked moment by moment. Behavioral data from three monkeys corresponded with model-based predictions: when salience favored the target, perceptual performance evolved rapidly and steadily toward an asymptotic level; when salience favored the distracter, many rapid errors were produced and the rise in performance took more time-effects analogous to oculomotor and attentional capture. The results show that salience has a brief (∼50 ms) but inexorable impact that leads to exogenous, involuntary capture, and this can either help or hinder performance, depending on the alignment between salience and ongoing internal goals.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Emily E. Oor
- Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA
| | - Terrence R. Stanford
- Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA
| | - Emilio Salinas
- Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Zaino D, Serchi V, Giannini F, Pucci B, Veneri G, Pretegiani E, Rosini F, Monti L, Rufa A. Different saccadic profile in bulbar versus spinal-onset amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Brain 2023; 146:266-277. [PMID: 35136957 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awac050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2021] [Revised: 12/21/2021] [Accepted: 01/16/2022] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Two clinical phenotypes characterize the onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS): the spinal variant, with symptoms beginning in the limbs, and the bulbar variant, affecting firstly speech and swallowing. The two variants show some distinct features in the histopathology, localization and prognosis, but to which extent they really differ clinically and pathologically remains to be clarified. Recent neuropathological and neuroimaging studies have suggested a broader spreading of the neurodegenerative process in ALS, extending beyond the motor areas, toward other cortical and deep grey matter regions, many of which are involved in visual processing and saccadic control. Indeed, a wide range of eye movement deficits have been reported in ALS, but they have never been used to distinguish the two ALS variants. Since quantifying eye movements is a very sensitive and specific method for the study of brain networks, we compared different saccadic and visual search behaviours across spinal ALS patients (n = 12), bulbar ALS patients (n = 6) and healthy control subjects (n = 13), along with cognitive and MRI measures, with the aim to define more accurately the two patients subgroups and possibly clarify a different underlying neural impairment. We found separate profiles of visually-guided saccades between spinal (short saccades) and bulbar (slow saccades) ALS, which could result from the pathologic involvement of different pathways. We suggest an early involvement of the parieto-collicular-cerebellar network in spinal ALS and the fronto-brainstem circuit in bulbar ALS. Overall, our data confirm the diagnostic value of the eye movements analysis in ALS and add new insight on the involved neural networks.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Domenica Zaino
- Eye tracking and Visual Application Lab (EVA Lab), Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neurosciences, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy.,Neurology and Neurometabolic Unit, Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neurosciences, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy
| | - Valeria Serchi
- Eye tracking and Visual Application Lab (EVA Lab), Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neurosciences, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy
| | - Fabio Giannini
- Centre for Motor Neuron Diseases, Neurology and Neurophysiology Unit, Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neurosciences, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy
| | - Barbara Pucci
- Neurology and Neurophysiology Unit, Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neuroscience, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy
| | - Giacomo Veneri
- Eye tracking and Visual Application Lab (EVA Lab), Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neurosciences, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy
| | - Elena Pretegiani
- Eye tracking and Visual Application Lab (EVA Lab), Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neurosciences, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy
| | - Francesca Rosini
- Eye tracking and Visual Application Lab (EVA Lab), Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neurosciences, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy
| | - Lucia Monti
- Unit of Neuroimaging and Neurointervention, Department of Neurological and Neurosensorial Sciences, AOUS, 53100, Siena, Italy
| | - Alessandra Rufa
- Eye tracking and Visual Application Lab (EVA Lab), Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neurosciences, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Hinault T, Segobin S, Benbrika S, Carluer L, Doidy F, Eustache F, Viader F, Desgranges B. Longitudinal grey matter and metabolic contributions to cognitive changes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Brain Commun 2022; 4:fcac228. [PMID: 36128222 PMCID: PMC9478152 DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcac228] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2022] [Revised: 07/13/2022] [Accepted: 09/05/2022] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is characterized by rapidly evolving cognitive and brain impairments. While previous work revealed structural and functional alterations associated with cognitive decline in patients suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the relationships between anatomo-functional changes and both disease’s progression and the evolution of cognitive performance remain largely unexplored. Here, we took advantage of repeated multi-modal acquisitions in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis over 1 year to assess the longitudinal sequence of grey matter atrophy, glucose metabolism and cognitive changes. Results revealed metabolic and structural changes over frontal, thalamic and temporal regions. Both cortical hypermetabolism and hypometabolism (right temporal gyrus and right angular gyrus, respectively) were associated with cognitive performance and thalamic hypometabolism during the follow-up testing session. Furthermore, the inferior frontal gyrus atrophy mediated the relation between early hypometabolism in this region and the subsequent decline of the theory of mind abilities. Marked volume loss was associated with larger hypometabolism and impaired cognitive performance. To our knowledge, this is the first study to longitudinally examine both grey matter volume and metabolic alteration patterns in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, over a mean follow-up time of 1 year. We identify how changes of the inferior frontal gyrus critically underly later cognitive performance, shedding new light on its high prognostic significance for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-related changes. These results have important implications for our understanding of structural and functional changes associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and how they underly cognitive impairments.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Hinault
- Normandie University, UNICAEN, PSL Université Paris, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, CHU de Caen, GIP Cyceron, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine (NIMH) , Caen 14032 , France
| | - Shailendra Segobin
- Normandie University, UNICAEN, PSL Université Paris, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, CHU de Caen, GIP Cyceron, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine (NIMH) , Caen 14032 , France
| | - Soumia Benbrika
- Normandie University, UNICAEN, PSL Université Paris, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, CHU de Caen, GIP Cyceron, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine (NIMH) , Caen 14032 , France
| | - Laurence Carluer
- Normandie University, UNICAEN, PSL Université Paris, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, CHU de Caen, GIP Cyceron, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine (NIMH) , Caen 14032 , France
| | - Franck Doidy
- Normandie University, UNICAEN, PSL Université Paris, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, CHU de Caen, GIP Cyceron, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine (NIMH) , Caen 14032 , France
| | - Francis Eustache
- Normandie University, UNICAEN, PSL Université Paris, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, CHU de Caen, GIP Cyceron, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine (NIMH) , Caen 14032 , France
| | - Fausto Viader
- Normandie University, UNICAEN, PSL Université Paris, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, CHU de Caen, GIP Cyceron, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine (NIMH) , Caen 14032 , France
| | - Béatrice Desgranges
- Normandie University, UNICAEN, PSL Université Paris, EPHE, INSERM, U1077, CHU de Caen, GIP Cyceron, Neuropsychologie et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine (NIMH) , Caen 14032 , France
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Functional alterations in large-scale resting-state networks of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A multi-site study across Canada and the United States. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0269154. [PMID: 35709100 PMCID: PMC9202847 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269154] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2021] [Accepted: 05/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a multisystem neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive degeneration of upper motor neurons and lower motor neurons, and frontotemporal regions resulting in impaired bulbar, limb, and cognitive function. Magnetic resonance imaging studies have reported cortical and subcortical brain involvement in the pathophysiology of ALS. The present study investigates the functional integrity of resting-state networks (RSNs) and their importance in ALS. Intra- and inter-network resting-state functional connectivity (Rs-FC) was examined using an independent component analysis approach in a large multi-center cohort. A total of 235 subjects (120 ALS patients; 115 healthy controls (HC) were recruited across North America through the Canadian ALS Neuroimaging Consortium (CALSNIC). Intra-network and inter-network Rs-FC was evaluated by the FSL-MELODIC and FSLNets software packages. As compared to HC, ALS patients displayed higher intra-network Rs-FC in the sensorimotor, default mode, right and left fronto-parietal, and orbitofrontal RSNs, and in previously undescribed networks including auditory, dorsal attention, basal ganglia, medial temporal, ventral streams, and cerebellum which negatively correlated with disease severity. Furthermore, ALS patients displayed higher inter-network Rs-FC between the orbitofrontal and basal ganglia RSNs which negatively correlated with cognitive impairment. In summary, in ALS there is an increase in intra- and inter-network functional connectivity of RSNs underpinning both motor and cognitive impairment. Moreover, the large multi-center CALSNIC dataset permitted the exploration of RSNs in unprecedented detail, revealing previously undescribed network involvement in ALS.
Collapse
|
8
|
Poletti B, Solca F, Carelli L, Diena A, Colombo E, Torre S, Maranzano A, Greco L, Cozza F, Lizio A, Ferrucci R, Girotti F, Verde F, Morelli C, Lunetta C, Silani V, Ticozzi N. Association of Clinically Evident Eye Movement Abnormalities With Motor and Cognitive Features in Patients With Motor Neuron Disorders. Neurology 2021; 97:e1835-e1846. [PMID: 34504031 DOI: 10.1212/wnl.0000000000012774] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2021] [Accepted: 08/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Although oculomotor abnormalities (OMAs) are not usually considered prominent features of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), they may represent potential clinical markers of neurodegeneration, especially when investigated together with cognitive and behavioral alterations. The aim of our study was to identify patterns of clinically evident OMAs in patients with ALS and to correlate such findings with cognitive-behavioral data. METHODS Three consecutive inpatient cohorts of Italian patients with ALS and controls were retrospectively evaluated to assess the frequency of OMAs and cognitive-behavioral alterations. The ALS population was divided into a discovery cohort and a replication cohort. Controls included a cohort of cognitively impaired individuals and patients with Alzheimer disease (AD). Participants underwent bedside eye movement evaluation to determine the presence and pattern of OMAs. Cognitive assessment was performed with a standard neuropsychological battery (discovery ALS cohort and AD cohort) and the Italian Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioural ALS Screen (ECAS) (replication ALS cohort). RESULTS We recruited 864 individuals with ALS (635 discovery, 229 replication), 798 who were cognitively unimpaired and 171 with AD. OMAs were detected in 10.5% of our ALS cohort vs 1.6% of cognitively unimpaired controls (p = 1.2 × 10-14) and 11.4% of patients with AD (p = NS). The most frequent deficits were smooth pursuit and saccadic abnormalities. OMA frequency was higher in patients with bulbar onset, prominent upper motor neuron signs, and advanced disease stages. Cognitive dysfunction was significantly more frequent in patients with OMAs in both ALS cohorts (p = 1.1 × 10-25). Furthermore, OMAs significantly correlated with the severity of cognitive impairment and with pathologic scores at the ECAS ALS-specific domains. Last, OMAs could be observed in 35.0% of cognitively impaired patients with ALS vs 11.4% of patients with AD (p = 6.4 × 10-7), suggesting a possible involvement of frontal oculomotor areas in ALS. CONCLUSION Patients with ALS showed a range of clinically evident OMAs, and these alterations were significantly correlated with cognitive, but not behavioral, changes. OMAs may be a marker of neurodegeneration, and bedside assessment represents a rapid, highly specific tool for detecting cognitive impairment in ALS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Barbara Poletti
- From the Department of Neurology (B.P., L.C., A.D., E.C., S.T., A.M., F.G., F.V., C.M., V.S., N.T.), Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation (F.S., F.V., V.S., N.T.), Dino Ferrari Center and Department of Health Sciences (R.F.), Aldo Ravelli Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Universitá degli Studi di Milano; Neuromuscular Omnicenter (L.G., F.C., A.L., C.L.), Fondazione Serena Onlus; Department of Materials Science and COMiB Research Center (F.C.), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (R.F.), Neurology Clinic III; and IRCCS Ca Granda Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital (R.F.), Milan, Italy
| | - Federica Solca
- From the Department of Neurology (B.P., L.C., A.D., E.C., S.T., A.M., F.G., F.V., C.M., V.S., N.T.), Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation (F.S., F.V., V.S., N.T.), Dino Ferrari Center and Department of Health Sciences (R.F.), Aldo Ravelli Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Universitá degli Studi di Milano; Neuromuscular Omnicenter (L.G., F.C., A.L., C.L.), Fondazione Serena Onlus; Department of Materials Science and COMiB Research Center (F.C.), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (R.F.), Neurology Clinic III; and IRCCS Ca Granda Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital (R.F.), Milan, Italy
| | - Laura Carelli
- From the Department of Neurology (B.P., L.C., A.D., E.C., S.T., A.M., F.G., F.V., C.M., V.S., N.T.), Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation (F.S., F.V., V.S., N.T.), Dino Ferrari Center and Department of Health Sciences (R.F.), Aldo Ravelli Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Universitá degli Studi di Milano; Neuromuscular Omnicenter (L.G., F.C., A.L., C.L.), Fondazione Serena Onlus; Department of Materials Science and COMiB Research Center (F.C.), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (R.F.), Neurology Clinic III; and IRCCS Ca Granda Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital (R.F.), Milan, Italy
| | - Alberto Diena
- From the Department of Neurology (B.P., L.C., A.D., E.C., S.T., A.M., F.G., F.V., C.M., V.S., N.T.), Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation (F.S., F.V., V.S., N.T.), Dino Ferrari Center and Department of Health Sciences (R.F.), Aldo Ravelli Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Universitá degli Studi di Milano; Neuromuscular Omnicenter (L.G., F.C., A.L., C.L.), Fondazione Serena Onlus; Department of Materials Science and COMiB Research Center (F.C.), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (R.F.), Neurology Clinic III; and IRCCS Ca Granda Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital (R.F.), Milan, Italy
| | - Eleonora Colombo
- From the Department of Neurology (B.P., L.C., A.D., E.C., S.T., A.M., F.G., F.V., C.M., V.S., N.T.), Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation (F.S., F.V., V.S., N.T.), Dino Ferrari Center and Department of Health Sciences (R.F.), Aldo Ravelli Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Universitá degli Studi di Milano; Neuromuscular Omnicenter (L.G., F.C., A.L., C.L.), Fondazione Serena Onlus; Department of Materials Science and COMiB Research Center (F.C.), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (R.F.), Neurology Clinic III; and IRCCS Ca Granda Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital (R.F.), Milan, Italy
| | - Silvia Torre
- From the Department of Neurology (B.P., L.C., A.D., E.C., S.T., A.M., F.G., F.V., C.M., V.S., N.T.), Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation (F.S., F.V., V.S., N.T.), Dino Ferrari Center and Department of Health Sciences (R.F.), Aldo Ravelli Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Universitá degli Studi di Milano; Neuromuscular Omnicenter (L.G., F.C., A.L., C.L.), Fondazione Serena Onlus; Department of Materials Science and COMiB Research Center (F.C.), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (R.F.), Neurology Clinic III; and IRCCS Ca Granda Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital (R.F.), Milan, Italy
| | - Alessio Maranzano
- From the Department of Neurology (B.P., L.C., A.D., E.C., S.T., A.M., F.G., F.V., C.M., V.S., N.T.), Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation (F.S., F.V., V.S., N.T.), Dino Ferrari Center and Department of Health Sciences (R.F.), Aldo Ravelli Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Universitá degli Studi di Milano; Neuromuscular Omnicenter (L.G., F.C., A.L., C.L.), Fondazione Serena Onlus; Department of Materials Science and COMiB Research Center (F.C.), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (R.F.), Neurology Clinic III; and IRCCS Ca Granda Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital (R.F.), Milan, Italy
| | - Lucia Greco
- From the Department of Neurology (B.P., L.C., A.D., E.C., S.T., A.M., F.G., F.V., C.M., V.S., N.T.), Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation (F.S., F.V., V.S., N.T.), Dino Ferrari Center and Department of Health Sciences (R.F.), Aldo Ravelli Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Universitá degli Studi di Milano; Neuromuscular Omnicenter (L.G., F.C., A.L., C.L.), Fondazione Serena Onlus; Department of Materials Science and COMiB Research Center (F.C.), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (R.F.), Neurology Clinic III; and IRCCS Ca Granda Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital (R.F.), Milan, Italy
| | - Federica Cozza
- From the Department of Neurology (B.P., L.C., A.D., E.C., S.T., A.M., F.G., F.V., C.M., V.S., N.T.), Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation (F.S., F.V., V.S., N.T.), Dino Ferrari Center and Department of Health Sciences (R.F.), Aldo Ravelli Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Universitá degli Studi di Milano; Neuromuscular Omnicenter (L.G., F.C., A.L., C.L.), Fondazione Serena Onlus; Department of Materials Science and COMiB Research Center (F.C.), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (R.F.), Neurology Clinic III; and IRCCS Ca Granda Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital (R.F.), Milan, Italy
| | - Andrea Lizio
- From the Department of Neurology (B.P., L.C., A.D., E.C., S.T., A.M., F.G., F.V., C.M., V.S., N.T.), Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation (F.S., F.V., V.S., N.T.), Dino Ferrari Center and Department of Health Sciences (R.F.), Aldo Ravelli Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Universitá degli Studi di Milano; Neuromuscular Omnicenter (L.G., F.C., A.L., C.L.), Fondazione Serena Onlus; Department of Materials Science and COMiB Research Center (F.C.), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (R.F.), Neurology Clinic III; and IRCCS Ca Granda Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital (R.F.), Milan, Italy
| | - Roberta Ferrucci
- From the Department of Neurology (B.P., L.C., A.D., E.C., S.T., A.M., F.G., F.V., C.M., V.S., N.T.), Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation (F.S., F.V., V.S., N.T.), Dino Ferrari Center and Department of Health Sciences (R.F.), Aldo Ravelli Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Universitá degli Studi di Milano; Neuromuscular Omnicenter (L.G., F.C., A.L., C.L.), Fondazione Serena Onlus; Department of Materials Science and COMiB Research Center (F.C.), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (R.F.), Neurology Clinic III; and IRCCS Ca Granda Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital (R.F.), Milan, Italy
| | - Floriano Girotti
- From the Department of Neurology (B.P., L.C., A.D., E.C., S.T., A.M., F.G., F.V., C.M., V.S., N.T.), Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation (F.S., F.V., V.S., N.T.), Dino Ferrari Center and Department of Health Sciences (R.F.), Aldo Ravelli Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Universitá degli Studi di Milano; Neuromuscular Omnicenter (L.G., F.C., A.L., C.L.), Fondazione Serena Onlus; Department of Materials Science and COMiB Research Center (F.C.), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (R.F.), Neurology Clinic III; and IRCCS Ca Granda Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital (R.F.), Milan, Italy
| | - Federico Verde
- From the Department of Neurology (B.P., L.C., A.D., E.C., S.T., A.M., F.G., F.V., C.M., V.S., N.T.), Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation (F.S., F.V., V.S., N.T.), Dino Ferrari Center and Department of Health Sciences (R.F.), Aldo Ravelli Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Universitá degli Studi di Milano; Neuromuscular Omnicenter (L.G., F.C., A.L., C.L.), Fondazione Serena Onlus; Department of Materials Science and COMiB Research Center (F.C.), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (R.F.), Neurology Clinic III; and IRCCS Ca Granda Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital (R.F.), Milan, Italy
| | - Claudia Morelli
- From the Department of Neurology (B.P., L.C., A.D., E.C., S.T., A.M., F.G., F.V., C.M., V.S., N.T.), Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation (F.S., F.V., V.S., N.T.), Dino Ferrari Center and Department of Health Sciences (R.F.), Aldo Ravelli Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Universitá degli Studi di Milano; Neuromuscular Omnicenter (L.G., F.C., A.L., C.L.), Fondazione Serena Onlus; Department of Materials Science and COMiB Research Center (F.C.), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (R.F.), Neurology Clinic III; and IRCCS Ca Granda Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital (R.F.), Milan, Italy
| | - Christian Lunetta
- From the Department of Neurology (B.P., L.C., A.D., E.C., S.T., A.M., F.G., F.V., C.M., V.S., N.T.), Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation (F.S., F.V., V.S., N.T.), Dino Ferrari Center and Department of Health Sciences (R.F.), Aldo Ravelli Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Universitá degli Studi di Milano; Neuromuscular Omnicenter (L.G., F.C., A.L., C.L.), Fondazione Serena Onlus; Department of Materials Science and COMiB Research Center (F.C.), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (R.F.), Neurology Clinic III; and IRCCS Ca Granda Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital (R.F.), Milan, Italy
| | - Vincenzo Silani
- From the Department of Neurology (B.P., L.C., A.D., E.C., S.T., A.M., F.G., F.V., C.M., V.S., N.T.), Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation (F.S., F.V., V.S., N.T.), Dino Ferrari Center and Department of Health Sciences (R.F.), Aldo Ravelli Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Universitá degli Studi di Milano; Neuromuscular Omnicenter (L.G., F.C., A.L., C.L.), Fondazione Serena Onlus; Department of Materials Science and COMiB Research Center (F.C.), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (R.F.), Neurology Clinic III; and IRCCS Ca Granda Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital (R.F.), Milan, Italy
| | - Nicola Ticozzi
- From the Department of Neurology (B.P., L.C., A.D., E.C., S.T., A.M., F.G., F.V., C.M., V.S., N.T.), Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS; Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation (F.S., F.V., V.S., N.T.), Dino Ferrari Center and Department of Health Sciences (R.F.), Aldo Ravelli Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Universitá degli Studi di Milano; Neuromuscular Omnicenter (L.G., F.C., A.L., C.L.), Fondazione Serena Onlus; Department of Materials Science and COMiB Research Center (F.C.), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo (R.F.), Neurology Clinic III; and IRCCS Ca Granda Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital (R.F.), Milan, Italy.
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
McKenna MC, Corcia P, Couratier P, Siah WF, Pradat PF, Bede P. Frontotemporal Pathology in Motor Neuron Disease Phenotypes: Insights From Neuroimaging. Front Neurol 2021; 12:723450. [PMID: 34484106 PMCID: PMC8415268 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2021.723450] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2021] [Accepted: 07/22/2021] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Frontotemporal involvement has been extensively investigated in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) but remains relatively poorly characterized in other motor neuron disease (MND) phenotypes such as primary lateral sclerosis (PLS), progressive muscular atrophy (PMA), spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), spinal bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA), post poliomyelitis syndrome (PPS), and hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP). This review focuses on insights from structural, metabolic, and functional neuroimaging studies that have advanced our understanding of extra-motor disease burden in these phenotypes. The imaging literature is limited in the majority of these conditions and frontotemporal involvement has been primarily evaluated by neuropsychology and post mortem studies. Existing imaging studies reveal that frontotemporal degeneration can be readily detected in ALS and PLS, varying degree of frontotemporal pathology may be captured in PMA, SBMA, and HSP, SMA exhibits cerebral involvement without regional predilection, and there is limited evidence for cerebral changes in PPS. Our review confirms the heterogeneity extra-motor pathology across the spectrum of MNDs and highlights the role of neuroimaging in characterizing anatomical patterns of disease burden in vivo. Despite the contribution of neuroimaging to MND research, sample size limitations, inclusion bias, attrition rates in longitudinal studies, and methodological constraints need to be carefully considered. Frontotemporal involvement is a quintessential clinical facet of MND which has important implications for screening practices, individualized management strategies, participation in clinical trials, caregiver burden, and resource allocation. The academic relevance of imaging frontotemporal pathology in MND spans from the identification of genetic variants, through the ascertainment of presymptomatic changes to the design of future epidemiology studies.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mary Clare McKenna
- Computational Neuroimaging Group, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Philippe Corcia
- Department of Neurology-Neurophysiology, CRMR ALS, Tours, France.,UMR 1253 iBrain, University of Tours, Tours, France.,LITORALS, Federation of ALS Centres: Tours-Limoges, Limoges, France
| | - Philippe Couratier
- LITORALS, Federation of ALS Centres: Tours-Limoges, Limoges, France.,ALS Centre, Limoges University Hospital (CHU de Limoges), Limoges, France
| | - We Fong Siah
- Computational Neuroimaging Group, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | | | - Peter Bede
- Computational Neuroimaging Group, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.,Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, Sorbonne University, Paris, France
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Kobeleva X, Machts J, Veit M, Vielhaber S, Petri S, Schoenfeld MA. Brain activity is contingent on neuropsychological function in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study of verbal working memory in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Eur J Neurol 2021; 28:3051-3060. [PMID: 34081813 DOI: 10.1111/ene.14957] [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: 02/17/2021] [Revised: 05/17/2021] [Accepted: 05/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive degeneration of neurons in motor and non-motor brain regions, affecting multiple cognitive domains such as memory. A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was performed to explore working memory function in ALS. METHODS To contribute to the growing research field that employs structural and functional neuroimaging to investigate the effect of ALS on different working memory components, the localization and intensity of alterations in neural activity was explored using fMRI. Being the first study to specifically address verbal working memory via fMRI in the context of ALS, the verbal n-back task with 0-back and 2-back conditions was employed. RESULTS Despite ALS patients showing unimpaired accuracies (p = 0.724) and reaction times (p = 0.0785), there was significantly increased brain activity of frontotemporal and parietal regions in the 2-back minus 0-back contrast in patients compared to controls (using nonparametric statistics with 5000 permutations and a T threshold of 2.5). DISCUSSION Increased brain activity of the frontotemporal and parietal regions during working memory performance was largely associated with better neuropsychological function within the ALS group, suggesting a compensatory effect during working memory execution. This study therefore adds to the current knowledge on neural correlates of working memory in ALS and contributes to a more nuanced understanding of hyperactivity during cognitive processes in fMRI studies of ALS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xenia Kobeleva
- Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.,Department of Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Judith Machts
- Institute for Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research (IKND), Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Maria Veit
- Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Stefan Vielhaber
- Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Susanne Petri
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Mircea Ariel Schoenfeld
- Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany.,Kliniken Schmieder, Heidelberg, Germany.,Department of behavioral neurology, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Barry RL, Babu S, Anteraper SA, Triantafyllou C, Keil B, Rowe OE, Rangaprakash D, Paganoni S, Lawson R, Dheel C, Cernasov PM, Rosen BR, Ratai EM, Atassi N. Ultra-high field (7T) functional magnetic resonance imaging in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a pilot study. NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL 2021; 30:102648. [PMID: 33872993 PMCID: PMC8060594 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102648] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2020] [Revised: 03/17/2021] [Accepted: 03/23/2021] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Participants with ALS exhibited impaired function between the cortex and cerebellum. The cerebellum is associated with complex motor and cognitive processing tasks. These findings add to the growing number of ALS reports implicating the cerebellum.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system that results in a progressive loss of motor function and ultimately death. It is critical, yet also challenging, to develop non-invasive biomarkers to identify, localize, measure and/or track biological mechanisms implicated in ALS. Such biomarkers may also provide clues to identify potential molecular targets for future therapeutic trials. Herein we report on a pilot study involving twelve participants with ALS and nine age-matched healthy controls who underwent high-resolution resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging at an ultra-high field of 7 Tesla. A group-level whole-brain analysis revealed a disruption in long-range functional connectivity between the superior sensorimotor cortex (in the precentral gyrus) and bilateral cerebellar lobule VI. Post hoc analyses using atlas-derived left and right cerebellar lobule VI revealed decreased functional connectivity in ALS participants that predominantly mapped to bilateral postcentral and precentral gyri. Cerebellar lobule VI is a transition zone between anterior motor networks and posterior non-motor networks in the cerebellum, and is associated with a wide range of key functions including complex motor and cognitive processing tasks. Our observation of the involvement of cerebellar lobule VI adds to the growing number of studies implicating the cerebellum in ALS. Future avenues of scientific investigation should consider how high-resolution imaging at 7T may be leveraged to visualize differences in functional connectivity disturbances in various genotypes and phenotypes of ALS along the ALS-frontotemporal dementia spectrum.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Robert L Barry
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA; Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Health Sciences & Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Suma Babu
- Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Neurology, Neurological Clinical Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - Sheeba Arnold Anteraper
- Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Christina Triantafyllou
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA; Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Siemens Healthineers, Erlangen, Germany
| | - Boris Keil
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA; Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Mittelhessen University of Applied Sciences, Department of Life Science Engineering, Institute of Medical Physics and Radiation Protection, Giessen, Germany
| | - Olivia E Rowe
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - D Rangaprakash
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA; Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Sabrina Paganoni
- Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Neurology, Neurological Clinical Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA; Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA; Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Robert Lawson
- Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Neurology, Neurological Clinical Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Christina Dheel
- Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Neurology, Neurological Clinical Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Paul M Cernasov
- Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Neurology, Neurological Clinical Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Bruce R Rosen
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA; Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Health Sciences & Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Eva-Maria Ratai
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA; Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Division of Neuroradiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Nazem Atassi
- Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Neurology, Neurological Clinical Research Institute, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Sanofi Genzyme, Cambridge, MA, USA
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
McMackin R, Dukic S, Costello E, Pinto-Grau M, McManus L, Broderick M, Chipika R, Iyer PM, Heverin M, Bede P, Muthuraman M, Pender N, Hardiman O, Nasseroleslami B. Cognitive network hyperactivation and motor cortex decline correlate with ALS prognosis. Neurobiol Aging 2021; 104:57-70. [PMID: 33964609 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.03.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2020] [Revised: 02/26/2021] [Accepted: 03/02/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
We aimed to quantitatively characterize progressive brain network disruption in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) during cognition using the mismatch negativity (MMN), an electrophysiological index of attention switching. We measured the MMN using 128-channel EEG longitudinally (2-5 timepoints) in 60 ALS patients and cross-sectionally in 62 healthy controls. Using dipole fitting and linearly constrained minimum variance beamforming we investigated cortical source activity changes over time. In ALS, the inferior frontal gyri (IFG) show significantly lower baseline activity compared to controls. The right IFG and both superior temporal gyri (STG) become progressively hyperactive longitudinally. By contrast, the left motor and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices are initially hyperactive, declining progressively. Baseline motor hyperactivity correlates with cognitive disinhibition, and lower baseline IFG activities correlate with motor decline rate, while left dorsolateral prefrontal activity predicted cognitive and behavioural impairment. Shorter survival correlates with reduced baseline IFG and STG activity and later STG hyperactivation. Source-resolved EEG facilitates quantitative characterization of symptom-associated and symptom-preceding motor and cognitive-behavioral cortical network decline in ALS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Roisin McMackin
- Academic Unit of Neurology, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
| | - Stefan Dukic
- Academic Unit of Neurology, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
| | - Emmet Costello
- Academic Unit of Neurology, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
| | - Marta Pinto-Grau
- Academic Unit of Neurology, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland; Department of Neurology, University Medical Centre Utrecht Brain Centre, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Lara McManus
- Academic Unit of Neurology, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
| | - Michael Broderick
- Academic Unit of Neurology, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland; Trinity Centre for Bioengineering, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
| | - Rangariroyashe Chipika
- Academic Unit of Neurology, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland; Computational Neuroimaging Group, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
| | - Parameswaran M Iyer
- Academic Unit of Neurology, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland; Beaumont Hospital Dublin, Department of Neurology, Dublin 9, Ireland
| | - Mark Heverin
- Academic Unit of Neurology, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
| | - Peter Bede
- Academic Unit of Neurology, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland; Computational Neuroimaging Group, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
| | - Muthuraman Muthuraman
- Biomedical Statistics and Multimodal Signal Processing Unit, Department of Neurology, Johannes-Gutenberg-University Hospital, Mainz, Germany
| | - Niall Pender
- Academic Unit of Neurology, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland; Department of Neurology, University Medical Centre Utrecht Brain Centre, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands; Beaumont Hospital Dublin, Department of Neurology, Dublin 9, Ireland
| | - Orla Hardiman
- Academic Unit of Neurology, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland; Beaumont Hospital Dublin, Department of Neurology, Dublin 9, Ireland.
| | - Bahman Nasseroleslami
- Academic Unit of Neurology, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Tao L, Wang Q, Liu D, Wang J, Zhu Z, Feng L. Eye tracking metrics to screen and assess cognitive impairment in patients with neurological disorders. Neurol Sci 2020; 41:1697-1704. [PMID: 32125540 DOI: 10.1007/s10072-020-04310-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2019] [Accepted: 02/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW Eye tracking is a powerful method to investigate the relationship between behavior and neural mechanisms. In recent years, eye movement analysis has been used in patients with neurological disorders to assess cognitive function. In this review, we explore the latest eye tracking researches in neurological disorders that are commonly associated with cognitive deficits, specifically, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), multiple sclerosis (MS), and epilepsy. We focus on the application of ocular measures in these disorders, with the goal of understanding how eye tracking technology can be used in the clinical setting. FINDINGS Eye tracking tasks (especially saccadic tasks) are often used as an adjunct to traditional scales for cognitive assessment. Eye tracking data confirmed that executive dysfunction is common in PD and ALS, whereas AD and MS are characterized by attention deficits. Research in evaluating cognitive function in epilepsy using eye tracking is still in its early stages, but this approach has shown advantages as a sensitive quantitative method with high temporal and spatial resolution. Eye tracking technology can facilitate the assessment of cognitive impairment with higher temporal resolution and finer granularity than traditional cognitive assessment. Oculomotor data collected during cognitive tasks can provide insight into biological processes. Eye tracking provides a nonverbal and less cognitively demanding method of measuring disease progression in cognitively impaired patients.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ling Tao
- XiangYa School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Quan Wang
- Key Laboratory of Biomedical Spectroscopy of Xi' An, Key Laboratory of Spectral Imaging technology, Xi'an, Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics (XIOPM), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi' An, China
| | - Ding Liu
- Department of Neurology, The Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Jing Wang
- Department of Neurology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Ziqing Zhu
- XiangYa School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Li Feng
- Department of Neurology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Bells S, Isabella SL, Brien DC, Coe BC, Munoz DP, Mabbott DJ, Cheyne DO. Mapping neural dynamics underlying saccade preparation and execution and their relation to reaction time and direction errors. Hum Brain Mapp 2020; 41:1934-1949. [PMID: 31916374 PMCID: PMC7268073 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24922] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2019] [Revised: 12/18/2019] [Accepted: 12/29/2019] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Our ability to control and inhibit automatic behaviors is crucial for negotiating complex environments, all of which require rapid communication between sensory, motor, and cognitive networks. Here, we measured neuromagnetic brain activity to investigate the neural timing of cortical areas needed for inhibitory control, while 14 healthy young adults performed an interleaved prosaccade (look at a peripheral visual stimulus) and antisaccade (look away from stimulus) task. Analysis of how neural activity relates to saccade reaction time (SRT) and occurrence of direction errors (look at stimulus on antisaccade trials) provides insight into inhibitory control. Neuromagnetic source activity was used to extract stimulus‐aligned and saccade‐aligned activity to examine temporal differences between prosaccade and antisaccade trials in brain regions associated with saccade control. For stimulus‐aligned antisaccade trials, a longer SRT was associated with delayed onset of neural activity within the ipsilateral parietal eye field (PEF) and bilateral frontal eye field (FEF). Saccade‐aligned activity demonstrated peak activation 10ms before saccade‐onset within the contralateral PEF for prosaccade trials and within the bilateral FEF for antisaccade trials. In addition, failure to inhibit prosaccades on anti‐saccade trials was associated with increased activity prior to saccade onset within the FEF contralateral to the peripheral stimulus. This work on dynamic activity adds to our knowledge that direction errors were due, at least in part, to a failure to inhibit automatic prosaccades. These findings provide novel evidence in humans regarding the temporal dynamics within oculomotor areas needed for saccade programming and the role frontal brain regions have on top‐down inhibitory control.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sonya Bells
- Program in Neurosciences and Mental Health, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Silvia L Isabella
- Program in Neurosciences and Mental Health, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Institute of Medical Sciences, Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Donald C Brien
- Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
| | - Brian C Coe
- Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
| | - Douglas P Munoz
- Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
| | - Donald J Mabbott
- Program in Neurosciences and Mental Health, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Douglas O Cheyne
- Program in Neurosciences and Mental Health, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Institute of Medical Sciences, Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Vuksanović V. Cortical Thickness and Functional Networks Modules by Cortical Lobes. Neuroscience 2019; 423:172-176. [PMID: 31705964 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2019.10.038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2019] [Revised: 10/21/2019] [Accepted: 10/22/2019] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
This study aims to investigate topological organization of cortical thickness and functional networks by cortical lobes. First, I demonstrated modular organization of these networks by the cortical surface frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital divisions. Secondly, I mapped the overlapping edges of cortical thickness and functional networks for positive and negative correlations. Finally, I showed that overlapping positive edges map onto within-lobe cortical interactions and negative onto between-lobes interactions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Vesna Vuksanović
- Aberdeen Biomedical Imaging Centre, Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Abstract
Recent applications of eye tracking for diagnosis, prognosis and follow-up of therapy in age-related neurological or psychological deficits have been reviewed. The review is focused on active aging, neurodegeneration and cognitive impairments. The potential impacts and current limitations of using characterizing features of eye movements and pupillary responses (oculometrics) as objective biomarkers in the context of aging are discussed. A closer look into the findings, especially with respect to cognitive impairments, suggests that eye tracking is an invaluable technique to study hidden aspects of aging that have not been revealed using any other noninvasive tool. Future research should involve a wider variety of oculometrics, in addition to saccadic metrics and pupillary responses, including nonlinear and combinatorial features as well as blink- and fixation-related metrics to develop biomarkers to trace age-related irregularities associated with cognitive and neural deficits.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ramtin Z Marandi
- Department of Health Science & Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg E 9220, Denmark
| | - Parisa Gazerani
- Department of Health Science & Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg E 9220, Denmark
| |
Collapse
|
17
|
Mohamed AA. Can Proprioceptive Training Reduce Muscle Fatigue in Patients With Motor Neuron Diseases? A New Direction of Treatment. Front Physiol 2019; 10:1243. [PMID: 31632290 PMCID: PMC6779805 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2019.01243] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2018] [Accepted: 09/10/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Muscle fatigue is a serious problem in patients with motor neuron diseases (MNDs). It commonly disturbs both daily life activity and rehabilitation tolerance. A particular concern should be taken when MNDs occur in older ages. Older patients with MNDs usually have a worse clinical presentation and a lower survival rate. This could increase the occurrence of muscle fatigue. Muscle fatigue occurs due to a dysfunction in either motor or sensory systems. Current exercise interventions performed to decrease the occurrence of muscle fatigue focused only on treating motor causes of muscle fatigue. It has been demonstrated that these interventions have a high debate in their effectiveness on decreasing the occurrence of muscle fatigue. Also, these exercise interventions ignored training the affected sensory part of muscle fatigue, however, the important role of the sensory system in driving the motor system. Thus, this review aimed to develop a novel exercise intervention by using proprioceptive training as an intervention to decrease the occurrence of muscle fatigue in patients with MNDs particularly, older ones. The physiological effects of proprioceptive training to decrease the occurrence of muscle fatigue could include two effects. The first effect includes the ability of the proprioceptive training to increase the sensitivity of muscle spindles as an attempt to normalize the firing rate of α-motoneurons, which their abnormalities have major roles in the occurrence of muscle fatigue. The second effect includes its ability to correct the abnormal movement-compensations, which develop due to the biomechanical constraints imposed on patients with MNDs.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ayman A. Mohamed
- Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, School of Health Sciences, Istanbul Gelisim University, Istanbul, Turkey
| |
Collapse
|
18
|
Bueno APA, Sato JR, Hornberger M. Eye tracking - The overlooked method to measure cognition in neurodegeneration? Neuropsychologia 2019; 133:107191. [PMID: 31521634 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107191] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2019] [Revised: 08/26/2019] [Accepted: 09/08/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Eye tracking (ET) studies are becoming increasingly popular due to rapid methodological and technological advances as well as the development of cost efficient and portable eye trackers. Although historically ET has been mostly employed in psychophysics or developmental cognition studies, there is also promising scope to use ET for movement disorders and measuring cognitive processes in neurodegeneration. Particularly, ET can be a powerful tool for cognitive and neuropsychological assessments of patients with pathologies affecting motor and verbal abilities, as tasks can be adapted without requiring motor (except eye movements) or verbal responses. In this review, we will examine the existing evidence of ET methods in neurodegenerative conditions and its potential clinical impact for cognitive assessment. We highlight that current evidence for ET is mostly focused on diagnostics of cognitive impairments in neurodegenerative disorders, where it is debatable whether it has any more sensitivity or specificity than existing cognitive assessments. By contrast, there is currently a lack of ET studies in more advanced disease stages, when patients' motor and verbal functions can be significantly affected, and standard cognitive assessments are challenging or often not possible. We conclude that ET is a promising method not only for cognitive diagnostics but more importantly, for potential cognitive disease tracking in progressive neurodegenerative conditions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- A P A Bueno
- - Center of Mathematics, Computing and Cognition, Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo André, Brazil; - Department of Medicine, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
| | - J R Sato
- - Center of Mathematics, Computing and Cognition, Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo André, Brazil
| | - M Hornberger
- - Department of Medicine, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK; - Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, Norwich, UK
| |
Collapse
|
19
|
Sagiv SK, Bruno JL, Baker JM, Palzes V, Kogut K, Rauch S, Gunier R, Mora AM, Reiss AL, Eskenazi B. Prenatal exposure to organophosphate pesticides and functional neuroimaging in adolescents living in proximity to pesticide application. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019; 116:18347-18356. [PMID: 31451641 PMCID: PMC6744848 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1903940116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
We have reported consistent associations of prenatal organophosphate pesticide (OP) exposure with poorer cognitive function and behavior problems in our Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS), a birth cohort of Mexican American youth in California's agricultural Salinas Valley. However, there is little evidence on how OPs affect neural dynamics underlying associations. We used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure cortical activation during tasks of executive function, attention, social cognition, and language comprehension in 95 adolescent CHAMACOS participants. We estimated associations of residential proximity to OP use during pregnancy with cortical activation in frontal, temporal, and parietal regions using multiple regression models, adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics. OP exposure was associated with altered brain activation during tasks of executive function. For example, with a 10-fold increase in total OP pesticide use within 1 km of maternal residence during pregnancy, there was a bilateral decrease in brain activation in the prefrontal cortex during a cognitive flexibility task (β = -4.74; 95% CI: -8.18, -1.31 and β = -4.40; 95% CI: -7.96, -0.84 for the left and right hemispheres, respectively). We also found that prenatal OP exposure was associated with sex differences in brain activation during a language comprehension task. This first functional neuroimaging study of prenatal OP exposure suggests that pesticides may impact cortical brain activation, which could underlie previously reported OP-related associations with cognitive and behavioral function. Use of fNIRS in environmental epidemiology offers a practical alternative to neuroimaging technologies and enhances our efforts to assess the impact of chemical exposures on neurodevelopment.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sharon K Sagiv
- Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720;
| | - Jennifer L Bruno
- Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
| | - Joseph M Baker
- Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
| | - Vanessa Palzes
- Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
| | - Katherine Kogut
- Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
| | - Stephen Rauch
- Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
| | - Robert Gunier
- Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
| | - Ana M Mora
- Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
| | - Allan L Reiss
- Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
- Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
- Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
| | - Brenda Eskenazi
- Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
| |
Collapse
|
20
|
Fernandez-Ruiz J, Hakvoort Schwerdtfeger RM, Alahyane N, Brien DC, Coe BC, Munoz DP. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex hyperactivity during inhibitory control in children with ADHD in the antisaccade task. Brain Imaging Behav 2019; 14:2450-2463. [PMID: 31493141 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-019-00196-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
Children with ADHD show significant deficits in response inhibition. A leading hypothesis suggests prefrontal hypoactivation as a possible cause, though, there is conflicting evidence. We tested the hypoactivation hypothesis by analyzing the response inhibition process within the oculomotor system. Twenty-two children diagnosed with ADHD and twenty control (CTRL) children performed the antisaccade task while undergoing an fMRI study with concurrent eye tracking. This task included a preparatory stage that cued a prosaccade (toward a stimuli) or an antisaccade (away from a stimuli) without an actual presentation of a peripheral target. This allowed testing inhibitory control without the confounding activation from an actual response. The ADHD group showed longer reaction times and more antisaccade direction errors. While both groups showed activations in saccade network areas, the ADHD showed significant hyperactivation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during the preparatory stage. No other areas in the saccade network had significant activation differences between groups. Further ADHD group analysis OFF and ON stimulant medication did not show drug-related activation differences. However, they showed a significant correlation between the difference in OFF/ON preparatory activation in the precuneus, and a decrease in the number of antisaccade errors. These results do not support the hypoactivity hypothesis as an inhibitory control deficit general explanation, but instead suggest less efficiency during the inhibitory period of the antisaccade task in children. Our findings contrast with previous results in ADHD adults showing decreased preparatory antisaccade activity, suggesting a significant age-dependent maturation effect associated to the inhibitory response in the oculomotor system.
Collapse
|
21
|
Frontal Anatomical Correlates of Cognitive and Speech Motor Deficits in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Behav Neurol 2019; 2019:9518309. [PMID: 31001362 PMCID: PMC6436339 DOI: 10.1155/2019/9518309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2018] [Revised: 10/25/2018] [Accepted: 12/11/2018] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
The goal of this study was to identify neurostructural frontal lobe correlates of cognitive and speaking rate changes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). 17 patients diagnosed with ALS and 12 matched controls underwent clinical, bulbar, and neuropsychological assessment and structural neuroimaging. Neuropsychological testing was performed via a novel computerized frontal battery (ALS-CFB), based on a validated theoretical model of frontal lobe functions, and focused on testing energization, executive function, emotion processing, theory of mind, and behavioral inhibition via antisaccades. The measure of speaking rate represented bulbar motor changes. Neuroanatomical assessment was performed using volumetric analyses focused on frontal lobe regions, postcentral gyrus, and occipital lobes as controls. Partial least square regressions (PLS) were used to predict behavioral (cognitive and speech rate) outcomes using volumetric measures. The data supported the overall hypothesis that distinct behavioral changes in cognition and speaking rate in ALS were related to specific regional neurostructural brain changes. These changes did not support a notion of a general dysexecutive syndrome in ALS. The observed specificity of behavior-brain changes can begin to provide a framework for subtyping of ALS. The data also support a more integrative framework for clinical assessment of frontal lobe functioning in ALS, which requires both behavioral testing and neuroimaging.
Collapse
|
22
|
Keller J, Böhm S, Aho-Özhan HEA, Loose M, Gorges M, Kassubek J, Uttner I, Abrahams S, Ludolph AC, Lulé D. Functional reorganization during cognitive function tasks in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Brain Imaging Behav 2019; 12:771-784. [PMID: 28600740 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-017-9738-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Cognitive deficits, especially in the domains of social cognition and executive function including verbal fluency, are common in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. There is yet sparse understanding of pathogenesis of the underlying, possibly adaptive, cortical patterns. To address this issue, 65 patients with ALS and 33 age-, gender- and education-matched healthy controls were tested on cognitive and behavioral deficits with the Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioural ALS Screen (ECAS). Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), cortical activity during social cognition and executive function tasks (theory of mind, verbal fluency, alternation) adapted from the ECAS was determined in a 3 Tesla scanner. Compared to healthy controls, ALS patients performed worse in the ECAS overall (p < 0.001) and in all of its subdomains (p < 0.02), except memory. Imaging revealed altered cortical activation during all tasks, with patients consistently showing a hyperactivation in relevant brain areas compared to healthy controls. Additionally, cognitively high performing ALS patients consistently exhibited more activation in frontal brain areas than low performing patients and behaviorally unimpaired patients presented with more neuronal activity in orbitofrontal areas than behaviorally impaired patients. In conclusion, hyperactivation in fMRI cognitive tasks seems to represent an early adaptive process to overcome neuronal cell loss in relevant brain areas. The hereby presented cortical pattern change might suggest that, once this loss passes a critical threshold and no cortical buffering is possible, clinical representation of cognitive and behavioral impairment evolves. Future studies might shed light on the pattern of cortical pattern change in the course of ALS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jürgen Keller
- Department of Neurology, University of Ulm, Oberer Eselsberg 45, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Sarah Böhm
- Department of Neurology, University of Ulm, Oberer Eselsberg 45, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Helena E A Aho-Özhan
- Department of Neurology, University of Ulm, Oberer Eselsberg 45, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Markus Loose
- Department of Neurology, University of Ulm, Oberer Eselsberg 45, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Martin Gorges
- Department of Neurology, University of Ulm, Oberer Eselsberg 45, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Jan Kassubek
- Department of Neurology, University of Ulm, Oberer Eselsberg 45, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Ingo Uttner
- Department of Neurology, University of Ulm, Oberer Eselsberg 45, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Sharon Abrahams
- Psychology-PPLS, Euan MacDonald Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research & Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh, EH89JZ, UK
| | - Albert C Ludolph
- Department of Neurology, University of Ulm, Oberer Eselsberg 45, 89081, Ulm, Germany
| | - Dorothée Lulé
- Department of Neurology, University of Ulm, Oberer Eselsberg 45, 89081, Ulm, Germany.
| |
Collapse
|
23
|
Simmatis L, Atallah G, Scott SH, Taylor S. The feasibility of using robotic technology to quantify sensory, motor, and cognitive impairments associated with ALS. Amyotroph Lateral Scler Frontotemporal Degener 2019; 20:43-52. [PMID: 30688092 DOI: 10.1080/21678421.2018.1550515] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE We used the KINARM robot to quantify impairments in cognitive and upper-limb sensorimotor performance in a cohort of people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We sought to study the feasibility of using this technology for ALS research, to quantify patterns of impairments in individuals living with ALS, and elucidate correlations between robotic and traditional clinical behavioral measures. METHODS Participants completed robot-based behavioral tasks testing sensorimotor, cognitive, and proprioceptive performance. Performance on robotic tasks was normalized to a large healthy control cohort (no neurological impairments), adjusted for age. Task impairment was defined as performance outside the 95% range of controls. Traditional clinical tests included: Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB), ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised (ALSFRS-R), and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). RESULTS Seventeen people with ALS were assessed. Two participants reported pain or discomfort from the robot's seat and 2 others reported discomfort from arm position during the assessment (both rectified and did not affect exam completion). Participants were able to perform the majority of the robotic tasks, although 9 participants were unable to complete 1 or more tasks. Between 20 and 69% of participants displayed sensorimotor impairments; 19 and 69% displayed cognitive task impairments; 25% displayed proprioceptive impairments. MoCA was impaired in 9/17 participants; 10/17 had impaired performance on FAB. MoCA and FAB correlated well with robot-based measures of cognition. CONCLUSION Use of robotic assessment is generally feasible for people with ALS. Individuals with ALS have sensorimotor impairments as expected, and some demonstrate substantial cognitive impairments.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Leif Simmatis
- a Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University , Kingston , Canada
| | - Ghada Atallah
- a Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University , Kingston , Canada
| | - Stephen H Scott
- a Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University , Kingston , Canada.,b Department of Medicine , Queen's University , Kingston , Canada and.,c Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences , Queen's University , Kingston , Canada
| | - Sean Taylor
- a Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University , Kingston , Canada.,b Department of Medicine , Queen's University , Kingston , Canada and
| |
Collapse
|
24
|
Proudfoot M, Bede P, Turner MR. Imaging Cerebral Activity in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Front Neurol 2019; 9:1148. [PMID: 30671016 PMCID: PMC6332509 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2018.01148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2018] [Accepted: 12/11/2018] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Advances in neuroimaging, complementing histopathological insights, have established a multi-system involvement of cerebral networks beyond the traditional neuromuscular pathological view of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The development of effective disease-modifying therapy remains a priority and this will be facilitated by improved biomarkers of motor system integrity against which to assess the efficacy of candidate drugs. Functional MRI (FMRI) is an established measure of both cerebral activity and connectivity, but there is an increasing recognition of neuronal oscillations in facilitating long-distance communication across the cortical surface. Such dynamic synchronization vastly expands the connectivity foundations defined by traditional neuronal architecture. This review considers the unique pathogenic insights afforded by the capture of cerebral disease activity in ALS using FMRI and encephalography.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Malcolm Proudfoot
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Peter Bede
- Computational Neuroimaging Group, Academic Unit of Neurology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Martin R Turner
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.,Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
25
|
Christidi F, Karavasilis E, Rentzos M, Kelekis N, Evdokimidis I, Bede P. Clinical and Radiological Markers of Extra-Motor Deficits in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Front Neurol 2018; 9:1005. [PMID: 30524366 PMCID: PMC6262087 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2018.01005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 67] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2018] [Accepted: 11/06/2018] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is now universally recognized as a complex multisystem disorder with considerable extra-motor involvement. The neuropsychological manifestations of frontotemporal, parietal, and basal ganglia involvement in ALS have important implications for compliance with assistive devices, survival, participation in clinical trials, caregiver burden, and the management of individual care needs. Recent advances in neuroimaging have been instrumental in characterizing the biological substrate of heterogeneous cognitive and behavioral deficits in ALS. In this review we discuss the clinical and radiological aspects of cognitive and behavioral impairment in ALS focusing on the recognition, assessment, and monitoring of these symptoms.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Foteini Christidi
- First Department of Neurology, Aeginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Efstratios Karavasilis
- Second Department of Radiology, University General Hospital Attikon, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Michail Rentzos
- First Department of Neurology, Aeginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Nikolaos Kelekis
- Second Department of Radiology, University General Hospital Attikon, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Ioannis Evdokimidis
- First Department of Neurology, Aeginition Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
| | - Peter Bede
- Computational Neuroimaging Group, Academic Unit of Neurology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| |
Collapse
|
26
|
Vuksanović V, Staff RT, Ahearn T, Murray AD, Wischik CM. Cortical Thickness and Surface Area Networks in Healthy Aging, Alzheimer's Disease and Behavioral Variant Fronto-Temporal Dementia. Int J Neural Syst 2018; 29:1850055. [PMID: 30638083 DOI: 10.1142/s0129065718500557] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
Abstract
Models of the human brain as a complex network of inter-connected sub-units are important in helping to understand the structural basis of the clinical features of neurodegenerative disorders. The aim of this study was to characterize in a systematic manner the differences in the structural correlation networks in cortical thickness (CT) and surface area (SA) in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and behavioral variant Fronto-Temporal Dementia (bvFTD). We have used the baseline magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data available from a large population of patients from three clinical trials in mild to moderate AD and mild bvFTD and compared this to a well-characterized healthy aging cohort. The study population comprised 202 healthy elderly subjects, 213 with bvFTD and 213 with AD. We report that both CT and SA network architecture can be described in terms of highly correlated networks whose positive and inverse links map onto the intrinsic modular organization of the four cortical lobes. The topology of the disturbance in structural network is different in the two disease conditions, and both are different from normal aging. The changes from normal are global in character and are not restricted to fronto-temporal and temporo-parietal lobes, respectively, in bvFTD and AD, and indicate an increase in both global correlational strength and in particular nonhomologous inter-lobar connectivity defined by inverse correlations. These inverse correlations appear to be adaptive in character, reflecting coordinated increases in CT and SA that may compensate for corresponding impairment in functionally linked nodes. The effects were more pronounced in the cortical thickness atrophy network in bvFTD and in the surface area network in AD. Although lobar modularity is preserved in the context of neurodegenerative disease, the hub-like organization of networks differs both from normal and between the two forms of dementia. This implies that hubs may be secondary features of the connectivity adaptation to neurodegeneration and may not be an intrinsic property of the brain. However, analysis of the topological differences in hub-like organization CT and SA networks, and their underlying positive and negative correlations, may provide a basis for assisting in the differential diagnosis of bvFTD and AD.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Vesna Vuksanović
- 1Aberdeen Biomedical Imaging Center, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB25 2ZD, UK
| | - Roger T Staff
- 2Imaging Physics, National Health Service Grampian, Aberdeen, AB25 2ZD, UK
| | - Trevor Ahearn
- 2Imaging Physics, National Health Service Grampian, Aberdeen, AB25 2ZD, UK
| | - Alison D Murray
- 1Aberdeen Biomedical Imaging Center, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB25 2ZD, UK
| | - Claude M Wischik
- 3TauRx, Therapeutics, Aberdeen, AB24 5RP, UK.,4School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB25 2ZD, UK
| |
Collapse
|
27
|
Cognitive phenotypes of sequential staging in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Cortex 2018; 101:163-171. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2018.01.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2017] [Revised: 12/12/2017] [Accepted: 01/15/2018] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
|
28
|
Zhang Y, Fang T, Wang Y, Guo X, Alarefi A, Wang J, Jiang T, Zhang J. Occipital cortical gyrification reductions associate with decreased functional connectivity in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Brain Imaging Behav 2018; 11:1-7. [PMID: 26780240 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-015-9499-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive muscular weakness and atrophy. Several morphometric studies have been conducted to investigate the gray matter volume or thickness changes in ALS, whereas the cortical folding pattern remains poorly understood. In the present study, we applied a surface-based local gyrification index (LGI) from high resolution MRI data to quantify the cortical folding in matched samples of 25 ALS patients versus 25 healthy controls. Using resting-state fMRI data, we further conducted seed-based functional connectivity analysis to explore the functional correlate of the cortical folding changes. We found that ALS patients had significantly reduced LGI in right occipital cortex and that abnormality in this region associated with decreased functional connectivity in the bilateral precuneus. This set of findings was speculated to result from disturbed white matter connectivity in ALS. In the patient group, we revealed significant negative correlations between disease duration and the LGIs of a cluster in the left superior frontal gyrus, which may reflect the cognitive deterioration in ALS. In summary, our results suggest that LGI may provide a useful means to assess ALS-related neurodegeneration and to study the pathophysiology of ALS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yuanchao Zhang
- Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610054, China
| | - Tao Fang
- Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610054, China
| | - Yue Wang
- Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610054, China
| | - Xin Guo
- Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610054, China
| | - Abdulqawi Alarefi
- Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610054, China
| | - Jian Wang
- Department of Radiology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, 400038, China
| | - Tianzi Jiang
- Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610054, China. .,National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
| | - Jiuquan Zhang
- Department of Radiology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, 400038, China.
| |
Collapse
|
29
|
Coe BC, Munoz DP. Mechanisms of saccade suppression revealed in the anti-saccade task. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2017; 372:rstb.2016.0192. [PMID: 28242726 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2016.0192] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/14/2016] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
The anti-saccade task has emerged as an important tool for investigating the complex nature of voluntary behaviour. In this task, participants are instructed to suppress the natural response to look at a peripheral visual stimulus and look in the opposite direction instead. Analysis of saccadic reaction times (SRT: the time from stimulus appearance to the first saccade) and the frequency of direction errors (i.e. looking toward the stimulus) provide insight into saccade suppression mechanisms in the brain. Some direction errors are reflexive responses with very short SRTs (express latency saccades), while other direction errors are driven by automated responses and have longer SRTs. These different types of errors reveal that the anti-saccade task requires different forms of suppression, and neurophysiological experiments in macaques have revealed several potential mechanisms. At the start of an anti-saccade trial, pre-emptive top-down inhibition of saccade generating neurons in the frontal eye fields and superior colliculus must be present before the stimulus appears to prevent express latency direction errors. After the stimulus appears, voluntary anti-saccade commands must compete with, and override, automated visually initiated saccade commands to prevent longer latency direction errors. The frequencies of these types of direction errors, as well as SRTs, change throughout the lifespan and reveal time courses for development, maturation, and ageing. Additionally, patients diagnosed with a variety of neurological and/or psychiatric disorders affecting the frontal lobes and/or basal ganglia produce markedly different SRT distributions and types of direction errors, which highlight specific deficits in saccade suppression and inhibitory control. The anti-saccade task therefore provides valuable insight into the neural mechanisms of saccade suppression and is a valuable tool in a clinical setting.This article is part of the themed issue 'Movement suppression: brain mechanisms for stopping and stillness'.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Brian C Coe
- Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7l 3N6
| | - Douglas P Munoz
- Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7l 3N6
| |
Collapse
|
30
|
Geevasinga N, Korgaonkar MS, Menon P, Van den Bos M, Gomes L, Foster S, Kiernan MC, Vucic S. Brain functional connectome abnormalities in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis are associated with disability and cortical hyperexcitability. Eur J Neurol 2017; 24:1507-1517. [DOI: 10.1111/ene.13461] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2017] [Accepted: 09/07/2017] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- N. Geevasinga
- Westmead Clinical School; University of Sydney; Sydney NSW
| | - M. S. Korgaonkar
- Westmead Clinical School; University of Sydney; Sydney NSW
- The Brain Dynamics Centre Westmead Institute for Medical Research and University of Sydney; Westmead NSW
| | - P. Menon
- Westmead Clinical School; University of Sydney; Sydney NSW
| | - M. Van den Bos
- Westmead Clinical School; University of Sydney; Sydney NSW
| | - L. Gomes
- Department of Radiology Westmead Hospital; Westmead NSW
| | - S. Foster
- Department of Radiology Westmead Hospital; Westmead NSW
| | - M. C. Kiernan
- Brain and Mind Centre University of Sydney; Sydney NSW
- Department of Neurology Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Sydney; Sydney NSW Australia
| | - S. Vucic
- Westmead Clinical School; University of Sydney; Sydney NSW
| |
Collapse
|
31
|
Age related prefrontal compensatory mechanisms for inhibitory control in the antisaccade task. Neuroimage 2017; 165:92-101. [PMID: 28988829 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.10.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2016] [Revised: 08/24/2017] [Accepted: 10/02/2017] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Cognitive decline during aging includes impairments in frontal executive functions like reduced inhibitory control. However, decline is not uniform across the population, suggesting individual brain response variability to the aging process. Here we tested the hypothesis, within the oculomotor system, that older adults compensate for age-related neural alterations by changing neural activation levels of the oculomotor areas, or even by recruiting additional areas to assist with cognitive performance. We established that the observed changes had to be related to better cognitive performance to be considered as compensatory. To probe this hypothesis we used the antisaccade paradigm and analyzed the effect of aging on brain activations during the inhibition of prepotent responses to visual stimuli. While undergoing a fMRI scan with concurrent eye tracking, 25 young adults (21.7 y/o ± 1.9 SDM) and 25 cognitively normal older adults (66.2 y/o ± 9.8 SDM) performed an interleaved pro/antisaccade task consisting of a preparatory stage and an execution stage. Compared to young adults, older participants showed a larger increase in antisaccade reaction times, while also generating more antisaccade direction errors. BOLD signal analyses during the preparatory stage, when response inhibition processes are established to prevent an automatic response, showed decreased activations in the anterior cingulate and the supplementary eye fields in the older group. Moreover, older adults also showed additional recruitment of the frontal pole not seen in the younger group, and larger activations in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during antisaccade preparation. Additional analyses to address the performance variability in the older group showed distinct behavioral-BOLD signal correlations. Larger activations in the saccade network, including the frontal pole, positively correlated with faster antisaccade reaction times, suggesting a functional recruitment of this area. However, only the activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during the antisaccade events showed a negative correlation with the number of errors across older adults. These findings support the presence of two dissociable age-related plastic mechanisms that result in different behavioral outcomes. One related to the additional recruitment of neural resources within anterior pole to facilitate modulation of cognitive responses like faster antisaccade reaction times, and another related to increased activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex resulting in a better inhibitory control in aging.
Collapse
|
32
|
Aponte EA, Schöbi D, Stephan KE, Heinzle J. The Stochastic Early Reaction, Inhibition, and late Action (SERIA) model for antisaccades. PLoS Comput Biol 2017; 13:e1005692. [PMID: 28767650 PMCID: PMC5555715 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005692] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2017] [Revised: 08/14/2017] [Accepted: 07/20/2017] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
The antisaccade task is a classic paradigm used to study the voluntary control of eye movements. It requires participants to suppress a reactive eye movement to a visual target and to concurrently initiate a saccade in the opposite direction. Although several models have been proposed to explain error rates and reaction times in this task, no formal model comparison has yet been performed. Here, we describe a Bayesian modeling approach to the antisaccade task that allows us to formally compare different models on the basis of their evidence. First, we provide a formal likelihood function of actions (pro- and antisaccades) and reaction times based on previously published models. Second, we introduce the Stochastic Early Reaction, Inhibition, and late Action model (SERIA), a novel model postulating two different mechanisms that interact in the antisaccade task: an early GO/NO-GO race decision process and a late GO/GO decision process. Third, we apply these models to a data set from an experiment with three mixed blocks of pro- and antisaccade trials. Bayesian model comparison demonstrates that the SERIA model explains the data better than competing models that do not incorporate a late decision process. Moreover, we show that the early decision process postulated by the SERIA model is, to a large extent, insensitive to the cue presented in a single trial. Finally, we use parameter estimates to demonstrate that changes in reaction time and error rate due to the probability of a trial type (pro- or antisaccade) are best explained by faster or slower inhibition and the probability of generating late voluntary prosaccades.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Eduardo A. Aponte
- Translational Neuromodeling Unit, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich & Swiss Institute of Technology Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- * E-mail: (EAA); (JH)
| | - Dario Schöbi
- Translational Neuromodeling Unit, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich & Swiss Institute of Technology Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Klaas E. Stephan
- Translational Neuromodeling Unit, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich & Swiss Institute of Technology Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Jakob Heinzle
- Translational Neuromodeling Unit, Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich & Swiss Institute of Technology Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- * E-mail: (EAA); (JH)
| |
Collapse
|
33
|
Hernandez-Castillo CR, Nashed JY, Fernandez-Ruiz J, Wang J, Gallivan J, Cook DJ. Increased functional connectivity after stroke correlates with behavioral scores in non-human primate model. Sci Rep 2017; 7:6701. [PMID: 28751636 PMCID: PMC5532205 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-07175-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2017] [Accepted: 06/26/2017] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Here we characterized the functional connectivity (FC) changes occurring after a controlled MCA stroke in a primate model. We hypothesize that if FC can inform about the neural changes after a stroke in the non-human primate (NHP) stroke model, then significant FC changes after the stroke would have to correlate with the remaining behavioral capacities. Eleven cynomolgus monkeys underwent an experimental middle cerebral artery occlusion while five monkeys remained as the control group. One month later the neurological function was assessed with a set of fine motor tasks and the Nonhuman Primate Stroke Scale (NHPSS). Structural and functional connectivity analyses were done to compare both groups. Three FC changes showed significant behavioral correlations: right sensorimotor-right lateral intraparietal FC with the six-well task; left posterior intraparietal-left dorsal premotor FC with the hill task; and right visual-left primary motor FC with the NHPSS. In the three instances, stronger FC correlated with better behavioral outcome. The results show that the functional changes correlating with behavioral outcomes involved sensorimotor cortices that were not restricted to the affected hemisphere. These results show that the FC analysis in NHP stroke model is a relevant methodology suitable to inform the neural changes occurring after a stroke.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Joseph Y Nashed
- Centre for Neuroscience studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
| | - Juan Fernandez-Ruiz
- Departamento de Fisiologia, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico, Mexico
| | - Justin Wang
- Centre for Neuroscience studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
| | - Jason Gallivan
- Centre for Neuroscience studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
| | - Douglas J Cook
- Centre for Neuroscience studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada. .,Department of Surgery, Faculty of Health Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada.
| |
Collapse
|
34
|
Menke RAL, Agosta F, Grosskreutz J, Filippi M, Turner MR. Neuroimaging Endpoints in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Neurotherapeutics 2017; 14:11-23. [PMID: 27752938 PMCID: PMC5233627 DOI: 10.1007/s13311-016-0484-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative, clinically heterogeneous syndrome pathologically overlapping with frontotemporal dementia. To date, therapeutic trials in animal models have not been able to predict treatment response in humans, and the revised ALS Functional Rating Scale, which is based on coarse disability measures, remains the gold-standard measure of disease progression. Advances in neuroimaging have enabled mapping of functional, structural, and molecular aspects of ALS pathology, and these objective measures may be uniquely sensitive to the detection of propagation of pathology in vivo. Abnormalities are detectable before clinical symptoms develop, offering the potential for neuroprotective intervention in familial cases. Although promising neuroimaging biomarker candidates for diagnosis, prognosis, and disease progression have emerged, these have been from the study of necessarily select patient cohorts identified in specialized referral centers. Further multicenter research is now needed to establish their validity as therapeutic outcome measures.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ricarda A L Menke
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Federica Agosta
- Neuroimaging Research Unit, Institute of Experimental Neurology, Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy
| | - Julian Grosskreutz
- Hans-Berger Department of Neurology, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany
| | - Massimo Filippi
- Neuroimaging Research Unit, Institute of Experimental Neurology, Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy
- Department of Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy
| | - Martin R Turner
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
35
|
Keller J, Gorges M, Aho-Özhan HEA, Uttner I, Schneider E, Kassubek J, Pinkhardt EH, Ludolph AC, Lulé D. Eye-Tracking Control to Assess Cognitive Functions in Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. J Vis Exp 2016. [PMID: 27768047 DOI: 10.3791/54634] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder with pathological involvement of upper and lower motoneurons, subsequently leading to progressive loss of motor and speech abilities. In addition, cognitive functions are impaired in a subset of patients. To evaluate these potential deficits in severely physically impaired ALS patients, eye-tracking is a promising means to conduct cognitive tests. The present article focuses on how eye movements, an indirect means of communication for physically disabled patients, can be utilized to allow for detailed neuropsychological assessment. The requirements, in terms of oculomotor parameters that have to be met for sufficient eye-tracking in ALS patients are presented. The properties of stimuli, including type of neuropsychological tests and style of presentation, best suited to successfully assess cognitive functioning, are also described. Furthermore, recommendations regarding procedural requirements are provided. Overall, this methodology provides a reliable, easy to administer and fast approach for assessing cognitive deficits in patients who are unable to speak or write such as patients with severe ALS. The only confounding factor might be deficits in voluntary eye movement control in a subset of ALS patients.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Erich Schneider
- Institute of Medical Technology, Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg
| | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
36
|
Proudfoot M, Rohenkohl G, Quinn A, Colclough GL, Wuu J, Talbot K, Woolrich MW, Benatar M, Nobre AC, Turner MR. Altered cortical beta-band oscillations reflect motor system degeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Hum Brain Mapp 2016; 38:237-254. [PMID: 27623516 PMCID: PMC5215611 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.23357] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2016] [Revised: 08/07/2016] [Accepted: 08/11/2016] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Continuous rhythmic neuronal oscillations underpin local and regional cortical communication. The impact of the motor system neurodegenerative syndrome amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) on the neuronal oscillations subserving movement might therefore serve as a sensitive marker of disease activity. Movement preparation and execution are consistently associated with modulations to neuronal oscillation beta (15–30 Hz) power. Cortical beta‐band oscillations were measured using magnetoencephalography (MEG) during preparation for, execution, and completion of a visually cued, lateralized motor task that included movement inhibition trials. Eleven “classical” ALS patients, 9 with the primary lateral sclerosis (PLS) phenotype, and 12 asymptomatic carriers of ALS‐associated gene mutations were compared with age‐similar healthy control groups. Augmented beta desynchronization was observed in both contra‐ and ipsilateral motor cortices of ALS patients during motor preparation. Movement execution coincided with excess beta desynchronization in asymptomatic mutation carriers. Movement completion was followed by a slowed rebound of beta power in all symptomatic patients, further reflected in delayed hemispheric lateralization for beta rebound in the PLS group. This may correspond to the particular involvement of interhemispheric fibers of the corpus callosum previously demonstrated in diffusion tensor imaging studies. We conclude that the ALS spectrum is characterized by intensified cortical beta desynchronization followed by delayed rebound, concordant with a broader concept of cortical hyperexcitability, possibly through loss of inhibitory interneuronal influences. MEG may potentially detect cortical dysfunction prior to the development of overt symptoms, and thus be able to contribute to the assessment of future neuroprotective strategies. Hum Brain Mapp 38:237–254, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Malcolm Proudfoot
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.,Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Gustavo Rohenkohl
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Andrew Quinn
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Giles L Colclough
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Joanne Wuu
- Department of Neurology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Florida
| | - Kevin Talbot
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Mark W Woolrich
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Michael Benatar
- Department of Neurology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Florida
| | - Anna C Nobre
- Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Martin R Turner
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
37
|
fMRI in Neurodegenerative Diseases: From Scientific Insights to Clinical Applications. NEUROMETHODS 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-5611-1_23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
|
38
|
Seer C, Fürkötter S, Vogts MB, Lange F, Abdulla S, Dengler R, Petri S, Kopp B. Executive Dysfunctions and Event-Related Brain Potentials in Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Front Aging Neurosci 2015; 7:225. [PMID: 26733861 PMCID: PMC4683183 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2015.00225] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2015] [Accepted: 11/20/2015] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
A growing body of evidence implies psychological disturbances in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Specifically, executive dysfunctions occur in up to 50% of ALS patients. The recently shown presence of cytoplasmic aggregates (TDP-43) in ALS patients and in patients with behavioral variants of frontotemporal dementia suggests that these two disease entities form the extremes of a spectrum. The present study aimed at investigating behavioral and electrophysiological indices of conflict processing in patients with ALS. A non-verbal variant of the flanker task demanded two-choice responses to target stimuli that were surrounded by flanker stimuli which either primed the correct response or the alternative response (the latter case representing the conflict situation). Behavioral performance, event-related potentials (ERP), and lateralized readiness potentials (LRP) were analyzed in 21 ALS patients and 20 controls. In addition, relations between these measures and executive dysfunctions were examined. ALS patients performed the flanker task normally, indicating preserved conflict processing. In similar vein, ERP and LRP indices of conflict processing did not differ between groups. However, ALS patients showed enhanced posterior negative ERP waveform deflections, possibly indicating increased modulation of visual processing by frontoparietal networks in ALS. We also found that the presence of executive dysfunctions was associated with more error-prone behavior and enhanced LRP amplitudes in ALS patients, pointing to a prefrontal pathogenesis of executive dysfunctions and to a potential link between prefrontal and motor cortical functional dysregulation in ALS, respectively.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Caroline Seer
- Department of Neurology, Hannover Medical School Hannover, Germany
| | | | - Maj-Britt Vogts
- Department of Neurology, Hannover Medical School Hannover, Germany
| | - Florian Lange
- Department of Neurology, Hannover Medical School Hannover, Germany
| | - Susanne Abdulla
- Department of Neurology, Hannover Medical SchoolHannover, Germany; Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University MagdeburgMagdeburg, Germany; Department of Neurology, German Center for Neurodegenerative DiseasesMagdeburg, Germany
| | - Reinhard Dengler
- Department of Neurology, Hannover Medical School Hannover, Germany
| | - Susanne Petri
- Department of Neurology, Hannover Medical School Hannover, Germany
| | - Bruno Kopp
- Department of Neurology, Hannover Medical School Hannover, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
39
|
Shen D, Cui L, Cui B, Fang J, Li D, Ma J. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Functional MRI Investigation of Motor Neuron Disease. Front Neurol 2015; 6:246. [PMID: 26635722 PMCID: PMC4656846 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2015.00246] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2015] [Accepted: 11/09/2015] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND To assess the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in motor neuron disease (MND), a systematic review and voxelwise meta-analysis of studies comparing brain activity in patients with MND and in healthy controls was conducted to identify common findings across studies. METHODS A search for related papers published in English and Chinese was performed in Ovid Medline, Pubmed, and Embase database. Voxelwise meta-analysis was performed using signed differential mapping. RESULTS The findings from 55 fMRI studies on MND were tabulated, and some common findings were discussed in further details. CONCLUSION These findings are preliminary, sometimes even contradictory, and do not allow a complete understanding of the functional alterations in MND. However, we documented reliable findings that MND is not confined to the motor system, but is a multisystem disorder involving extra-motor cortex areas, causing cognitive dysfunction and deficits in socioemotional and sensory processing pathways.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Dongchao Shen
- Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| | - Liying Cui
- Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
- Neuroscience Center, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Bo Cui
- Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| | - Jia Fang
- Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| | - Dawei Li
- Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| | - Junfang Ma
- Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| |
Collapse
|
40
|
Proudfoot M, Menke RAL, Sharma R, Berna CM, Hicks SL, Kennard C, Talbot K, Turner MR. Eye-tracking in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A longitudinal study of saccadic and cognitive tasks. Amyotroph Lateral Scler Frontotemporal Degener 2015; 17:101-11. [PMID: 26312652 DOI: 10.3109/21678421.2015.1054292] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
A relative preservation of eye movements is notable in ALS, but saccadic functions have not been studied longitudinally. ALS overlaps with FTD, typically involving executive dysfunction, and eye-tracking offers additional potential for the assessment of extramotor pathology where writing and speaking are both impaired. Eye-tracking measures (including anti-saccade, trail-making and visual search tasks) were assessed at six-monthly intervals for up to two years in a group of ALS (n = 61) and primary lateral sclerosis (n = 7) patients, compared to healthy age-matched controls (n = 39) assessed on a single occasion. Task performance was explored speculatively in relation to resting-state functional MRI (R-FMRI) network connectivity. Results showed that ALS patients were impaired on executive and visual search tasks despite normal basic saccadic function, and impairments in the PLS patients were unexpectedly often more severe. No significant progression was detected longitudinally in either group. No changes in R-FMRI network connectivity were identified in relation to patient performance. In conclusion, eye-tracking offers an objective means to assess extramotor cerebral involvement in ALS. The relative resistance of pure oculomotor function is confirmed, and higher-level executive impairments do not follow the same rate of decline as physical disability. PLS patients may have more cortical dysfunction than has been previously appreciated.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Malcolm Proudfoot
- a Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK
| | - Ricarda A L Menke
- a Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK
| | - Rakesh Sharma
- a Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK
| | - Claire M Berna
- a Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK
| | - Stephen L Hicks
- a Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK
| | - Christopher Kennard
- a Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK
| | - Kevin Talbot
- a Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK
| | - Martin R Turner
- a Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK
| |
Collapse
|
41
|
Hernandez-Castillo CR, Galvez V, Mercadillo RE, Díaz R, Yescas P, Martinez L, Ochoa A, Velazquez-Perez L, Fernandez-Ruiz J. Functional connectivity changes related to cognitive and motor performance in spinocerebellar ataxia type 2. Mov Disord 2015; 30:1391-9. [PMID: 26256273 DOI: 10.1002/mds.26320] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2015] [Revised: 04/30/2015] [Accepted: 05/25/2015] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Several neuropathological studies in spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2) have revealed significant atrophy of the cerebellum, brainstem, sensorimotor cortex, and several regions in the frontal lobe. However, the impact of the neurodegeneration on the functional integration of the remaining tissue is unknown. To analyze the clinical impact of these functional changes, we correlated the abnormal functional connectivity found in SCA2 patients with their scores in clinical scales. To obtain the functional connectivity changes, we followed two approaches. In one we used areas with significant cerebellar gray matter atrophy as anchor seeds, and in the other we performed a whole-brain data-driven analysis. METHODS Fourteen genetically confirmed SCA2 patients and aged-matched healthy controls participated in the study. Voxel-based morphometry and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were done to analyze structural and functional brain changes. Independent component analysis and dual regression were used for intrinsic network comparison. Significant functional connectivity differences were correlated with the behavioral scores. RESULTS Seed-based analysis found reduced functional connectivity within the cerebellum and between the cerebellum and frontal/parietal cortices. Cerebellar functional connectivity increases were found with parietal, frontal, and temporal areas. Intrinsic network analysis found a functional decrease in the cerebellar network, and increase in the default-mode and fronto-parietal networks. Further analysis showed significant correlations between clinical scores and the abnormal functional connectivity strength. CONCLUSION Our findings show significant correlations between functional connectivity changes in key areas affected in SCA2 and these patients' motor and neuropsychological impairments, adding an important insight to our understanding of the pathophysiology of SCA2.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Carlos R Hernandez-Castillo
- Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología-Cátedras-Instituto de Neuroetologia, Universidad Veracruzana, México
| | - Víctor Galvez
- Programa de Doctorado en Neuroetología, Universidad Veracruzana, México
| | - Roberto E Mercadillo
- Cátedras CONACYT, Área de Neurociencias, Depto. de Biología de la Reproducción, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Unidad Iztapalapa, México
| | - Rosalinda Díaz
- Laboratorio de Neuropsicología, Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México
| | - Petra Yescas
- Departamento de Neurogenética y Biología Molecular, Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía. Manuel Velasco Suarez, México
| | - Leticia Martinez
- Departamento de Neurogenética y Biología Molecular, Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía. Manuel Velasco Suarez, México
| | - Adriana Ochoa
- Departamento de Neurogenética y Biología Molecular, Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía. Manuel Velasco Suarez, México
| | | | - Juan Fernandez-Ruiz
- Programa de Doctorado en Neuroetología, Universidad Veracruzana, México.,Laboratorio de Neuropsicología, Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México.,Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Veracruzana, México
| |
Collapse
|
42
|
Gui D, Xu S, Zhu S, Fang Z, Spaeth AM, Xin Y, Feng T, Rao H. Resting spontaneous activity in the default mode network predicts performance decline during prolonged attention workload. Neuroimage 2015. [PMID: 26196666 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.07.030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
After continuous and prolonged cognitive workload, people typically show reduced behavioral performance and increased feelings of fatigue, which are known as "time-on-task (TOT) effects". Although TOT effects are pervasive in modern life, their underlying neural mechanisms remain elusive. In this study, we induced TOT effects by administering a 20-min continuous psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) to a group of 16 healthy adults and used resting-state blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine spontaneous brain activity changes associated with fatigue and performance. Behaviorally, subjects displayed robust TOT effects, as reflected by increasingly slower reaction times as the test progressed and higher self-reported mental fatigue ratings after the 20-min PVT. Compared to pre-test measurements, subjects exhibited reduced amplitudes of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) in the default mode network (DMN) and increased ALFF in the thalamus after the test. Subjects also exhibited reduced anti-correlations between the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and right middle prefrontal cortex after the test. Moreover, pre-test resting ALFF in the PCC and medial prefrontal cortex (MePFC) predicted subjects' subsequent performance decline; individuals with higher ALFF in these regions exhibited more stable reaction times throughout the 20-min PVT. These results support the important role of both task-positive and task-negative networks in mediating TOT effects and suggest that spontaneous activity measured by resting-state BOLD fMRI may be a marker of mental fatigue.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Danyang Gui
- Center for Functional Neuroimaging, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.,National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Sihua Xu
- Department of Applied Psychology, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, Guangzhou, China.,Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Senhua Zhu
- Center for Functional Neuroimaging, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.,Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Zhuo Fang
- Center for Functional Neuroimaging, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.,Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Andrea M Spaeth
- Center for Functional Neuroimaging, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.,Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
| | - Yuanyuan Xin
- School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
| | - Tingyong Feng
- School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
| | - Hengyi Rao
- Center for Functional Neuroimaging, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.,Laboratory of Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences, College of International Business, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China.,Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
| |
Collapse
|
43
|
Abstract
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is now recognised to be a heterogeneous neurodegenerative syndrome of the motor system and its frontotemporal cortical connections. The development and application of structural and functional imaging over the last three decades, in particular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), has allowed traditional post mortem histopathological and emerging molecular findings in ALS to be placed in a clinical context. Cerebral grey and white matter structural MRI changes are increasingly being understood in terms of brain connectivity, providing insights into the advancing degenerative process and producing candidate biomarkers. Such markers may refine the prognostic stratification of patients and the diagnostic pathway, as well as providing an objective assessment of changes in disease activity in response to future therapeutic agents. Studies are being extended to the spinal cord, and the application of neuroimaging to unaffected carriers of highly penetrant genetic mutations linked to the development of ALS offers a unique window to the pre-symptomatic landscape.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Martin R. Turner
- />Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- />John Radcliffe Hospital, West Wing Level 3, Oxford, OX3 9DU UK
| | - Esther Verstraete
- />University of Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
- />University Medical Center, Heidelberglaan 100, Utrecht, Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|
44
|
Mohammadi B, Kollewe K, Cole DM, Fellbrich A, Heldmann M, Samii A, Dengler R, Petri S, Münte TF, Krämer UM. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis affects cortical and subcortical activity underlying motor inhibition and action monitoring. Hum Brain Mapp 2015; 36:2878-89. [PMID: 25913637 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.22814] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2015] [Revised: 04/01/2015] [Accepted: 04/06/2015] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by muscular atrophy, spasticity, and bulbar signs caused by loss of upper and lower motor neurons. Evidence suggests that ALS additionally affects other brain areas including premotor cortex and supplementary motor area. Here, we studied movement execution and inhibition in ALS patients using a stop-signal paradigm and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Seventeen ALS patients and 17 age-matched healthy controls performed a stop-signal task that required responding with a button press to a right- or left-pointing black arrow (go-stimuli). In stop-trials, a red arrow (stop-stimulus) was presented shortly after the black arrow indicating to withhold the prepared movement. Patients had by trend higher reaction times in go-trials but did not differ significantly in their inhibition performance. Patients showed stronger inhibition-related activity in inferior, superior, and middle frontal gyri as well as in putamen and pallidum. Error-related activity, conversely, was found to be stronger in healthy controls, particularly in the insula bilaterally. Patients also showed increased activity in the motor cortex during button presses. The results provide evidence for altered prefrontal and subcortical networks underlying motor execution, motor inhibition, and error monitoring in ALS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Bahram Mohammadi
- Department of Neurology, University Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
- CNS-LAB, International Neuroscience Institute, Hannover, Germany
| | - Katja Kollewe
- Department of Neurology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - David M Cole
- Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Anja Fellbrich
- Department of Neurology, University Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
| | | | - Amir Samii
- CNS-LAB, International Neuroscience Institute, Hannover, Germany
| | - Reinhard Dengler
- Department of Neurology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Susanne Petri
- Department of Neurology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
| | - Thomas F Münte
- Department of Neurology, University Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
- Institute of Psychology II, University Lübeck, Germany
| | - Ulrike M Krämer
- Department of Neurology, University Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
- Institute of Psychology II, University Lübeck, Germany
| |
Collapse
|