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Research Square Apr 2024The study aim was to determine whether associations of antenatal maternal anaemia with smaller corpus callosum, putamen, and caudate nucleus volumes previously described...
BACKGROUND
The study aim was to determine whether associations of antenatal maternal anaemia with smaller corpus callosum, putamen, and caudate nucleus volumes previously described in children at age 2-3 years persist to age 6-7 years in the Drakenstein Child Health Study (DCHS).
METHODS
This neuroimaging sub-study was nested within the DCHS, a South African population-based birth cohort. Pregnant women were enrolled (2012-2015) and mother-child dyads were followed prospectively. A sub-group of children had magnetic resonance imaging at 6-7 years of age (2018-2022). Mothers had haemoglobin measurements during pregnancy and a proportion of children were tested postnatally. Maternal anaemia (haemoglobin<11g/dL) and child anaemia were classified using WHO and local guidelines. Linear modeling was used to investigate associations between antenatal maternal anaemia status, maternal haemoglobin concentrations, and regional child brain volumes. Models included potential confounders and were conducted with and without child anaemia to assess the relative roles of antenatal versus postnatal anaemia.
RESULTS
Overall, 157 children ( [] age of 75.54 [4.77] months; 84 [53.50%] male) were born to mothers with antenatal haemoglobin data. The prevalence of maternal anaemia during pregnancy was 31.85% (50/157). In adjusted models, maternal anaemia status was associated with smaller volumes of the total corpus callosum (adjusted percentage difference, -6.77%; =0.003), left caudate nucleus (adjusted percentage difference, -5.98%, =0.005), and right caudate nucleus (adjusted percentage difference, -6.12%; =0.003). Continuous maternal haemoglobin was positively associated with total corpus callosum (=0.239 [CI: 0.10 to 0.38]; <0.001) and caudate nucleus (=0.165 [CI: 0.02 to 0.31]; =0.027) volumes. In a sub-group (=89) with child haemoglobin data ( [] age of 76.06[4.84]), the prevalence of antenatal maternal anaemia and postnatal child anaemia was 38.20% (34/89) and 47.19% (42/89), respectively. There was no association between maternal and child anaemia (c = 0.799; =0.372), and child anaemia did not contribute to regional brain volume differences associated with maternal anaemia.
CONCLUSIONS
Associations between maternal anaemia and regional child brain volumes previously reported at 2-3 years of age were consistent and persisted to 6-7 years of age. Findings support the importance of optimizing antenatal maternal health and reinforce these brain regions as a future research focus on intervention outcomes.
PubMed: 38746172
DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4281448/v1 -
Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism... Apr 2024Hemichorea-hemiballismus (HCHB) syndrome is a syndrome characterized by choreic movements which are irregular, nonrepetitive, and random movements, and ballismus which...
SUMMARY
Hemichorea-hemiballismus (HCHB) syndrome is a syndrome characterized by choreic movements which are irregular, nonrepetitive, and random movements, and ballismus which are spontaneous and violent movements. HCHB syndrome with a metabolic cause is a rare presentation that can be precipitated by uncontrolled diabetes. Presented here is a case of HCHB syndrome with right-sided neuroimaging findings and contralateral chorea due to uncontrolled type 2 diabetes mellitus. This patient was found to be obtunded with a blood glucose of greater than 500 mg/dL by EMS. After the administration of insulin, she was able to answer clarifying questions of noncompliance with her antihyperglycemic medications. She had a computed tomography without contrast of the head which showed hyperdense lesions in the right caudate nucleus and putamen consistent with HCHB syndrome. She was started on treatment for nonketotic hyperglycemia with insulin. As her mentation improved, she was able to cooperate with physical examination, which revealed irregular and violent movements in the left upper and lower extremities. Her hemichorea and hemiballismus improved with strict glycemic control, and she was able to be discharged to a skilled nursing facility for further rehabilitation. She would later have repeated hospitalizations for poor glycemic control, and repeat neuroimaging would reveal the resolution of hyperdensities after 4 months. HCHB syndrome due to uncontrolled diabetes has been termed diabetic striatopathy and is characterized by poor glycemic control, unilateral striatal hyperdensity on CT imaging, and contralateral choreic movements. Diabetic striatopathy remains a poorly understood disease, and the exact pathophysiologic mechanism has not been definitively elucidated.
LEARNING POINTS
Diabetic striatopathy is a relatively new term for metabolic etiology of hemichorea-hemiballismus syndrome and was coined in 2009. The triad for diabetic striatopathy is poor glycemic control, unilateral striatal hyperdensity on CT imaging, and contralateral choreic movements. Multiple etiologies have been suggested for the cause of diabetic striatopathy including petechial hemorrhage, mineral deposition, myelin destruction, and infarction with reactive astrocytosis; however, the exact mechanism has yet to be determined. Antidopaminergic medications may be used to control the choreic movements of diabetic striatopathy; however, the mainstay of treatment is glycemic control, often with insulin therapy.
PubMed: 38744315
DOI: 10.1530/EDM-23-0082 -
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 2024We investigated the relationship between loneliness, cognitive impairment, and regional brain volume among elderly individuals residing in the Korean community.
INTRODUCTION
We investigated the relationship between loneliness, cognitive impairment, and regional brain volume among elderly individuals residing in the Korean community.
METHODS
Data from the ARIRANG aging-cognition sub-cohort, collected between 2020 and 2022, were utilized for the present study. Loneliness was assessed using the UCLA-Loneliness Scale (UCLA-LS) questionnaire and the relevant item from Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale Korean version (CES-D-K). Cognitive impairment was measured through Mini-Mental State Examination (K-MMSE-2) and Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery (SNSB-C), with five sub-categories: attention, memory, visuospatial function, language, and executive function. Logistic regression was employed for prevalence ratios related to cognitive impairment, while linear regression was used for regional brain volume including white matter hyperintensity (WMH) and cortical thickness.
RESULTS
Our analysis involved 785 participants (292 men and 493 women). We observed increased cognitive impairment assessed by K-MMSE-2 [UCLA-LS: odds ratio (OR) 3.133, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.536-6.393; loneliness from CES-D: OR 2.823, 95% CI 1.426-5.590] and SNSB-C total score (UCLA-LS: OR 2.145, 95% CI 1.304-3.529) in the lonely group compared to the non-lonely group. Specifically, the lonely group identified by UCLA-LS showed an association with declined visuospatial (OR 1.591, 95% CI 1.029-2.460) and executive function (OR 1.971, 95% CI 1.036-3.750). The lonely group identified by CES-D-K was associated with impaired memory (OR 1.577, 95% CI 1.009-2.466) and executive function (OR 1.863, 95% CI 1.036-3.350). In the regional brain volume analysis, loneliness was linked to reduced brain volume in frontal white matter (left: -1.24, 95% CI -2.37 ∼-0.12; right: -1.16, 95% CI -2.31 ∼ -0.00), putamen (left: -0.07, 95% CI -0.12 ∼-0.02; right: -0.06, 95% CI -0.11 ∼-0.01), and globus pallidus (-15.53, 95% CI -30.13 ∼-0.93). There was no observed association in WMH and cortical thickness.
CONCLUSION
Loneliness is associated with cognitive decline and volumetric reduction in the frontal white matter, putamen, and globus pallidus.
PubMed: 38741916
DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2024.1389476 -
Frontiers in Neural Circuits 2024The posterior intralaminar thalamic nucleus (PIL) and peripeduncular nucleus (PP) are two adjoining structures located medioventral to the medial geniculate nucleus. The... (Comparative Study)
Comparative Study
The posterior intralaminar thalamic nucleus (PIL) and peripeduncular nucleus (PP) are two adjoining structures located medioventral to the medial geniculate nucleus. The PIL-PP region plays important roles in auditory fear conditioning and in social, maternal and sexual behaviors. Previous studies often lumped the PIL and PP into single entity, and therefore it is not known if they have common and/or different brain-wide connections. In this study, we investigate brain-wide efferent and afferent projections of the PIL and PP using reliable anterograde and retrograde tracing methods. Both PIL and PP project strongly to lateral, medial and anterior basomedial amygdaloid nuclei, posteroventral striatum (putamen and external globus pallidus), amygdalostriatal transition area, zona incerta, superior and inferior colliculi, and the ectorhinal cortex. However, the PP rather than the PIL send stronger projections to the hypothalamic regions such as preoptic area/nucleus, anterior hypothalamic nucleus, and ventromedial nucleus of hypothalamus. As for the afferent projections, both PIL and PP receive multimodal information from auditory (inferior colliculus, superior olivary nucleus, nucleus of lateral lemniscus, and association auditory cortex), visual (superior colliculus and ectorhinal cortex), somatosensory (gracile and cuneate nuclei), motor (external globus pallidus), and limbic (central amygdaloid nucleus, hypothalamus, and insular cortex) structures. However, the PP rather than PIL receives strong projections from the visual related structures parabigeminal nucleus and ventral lateral geniculate nucleus. Additional results from Cre-dependent viral tracing in mice have also confirmed the main results in rats. Together, the findings in this study would provide new insights into the neural circuits and functional correlation of the PIL and PP.
Topics: Animals; Rats; Mice; Male; Neural Pathways; Intralaminar Thalamic Nuclei; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Female
PubMed: 38736977
DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2024.1384621 -
NeuroImage Jul 2024Holistic and analytic thinking are two distinct modes of thinking used to interpret the world with relative preferences varying across cultures. While most research on...
Holistic and analytic thinking are two distinct modes of thinking used to interpret the world with relative preferences varying across cultures. While most research on these thinking styles has focused on behavioral and cognitive aspects, a few studies have utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the correlations between brain metrics and self-reported scale scores. Other fMRI studies used single holistic and analytic thinking tasks. As a single task may involve processing in spurious low-level regions, we used two different holistic and analytic thinking tasks, namely the frame-line task and the triad task, to seek convergent brain regions to distinguish holistic and analytic thinking using multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA). Results showed that brain regions fundamental to distinguish holistic and analytic thinking include the bilateral frontal lobes, bilateral parietal lobes, bilateral precentral and postcentral gyrus, bilateral supplementary motor areas, bilateral fusiform, bilateral insula, bilateral angular gyrus, left cuneus, and precuneus, left olfactory cortex, cingulate gyrus, right caudate and putamen. Our study maps brain regions that distinguish between holistic and analytic thinking and provides a new approach to explore the neural representation of cultural constructs. We provide initial evidence connecting culture-related brain regions with language function to explain the origins of cultural differences in cognitive styles.
Topics: Humans; Thinking; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Female; Young Adult; Brain Mapping; Adult; Brain
PubMed: 38723877
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120627 -
Brain Communications 2024Multiple system atrophy is a neurodegenerative disease with α-synuclein pathology predominating in the striatonigral and olivopontocerebellar systems. Mixed pathologies...
Multiple system atrophy is a neurodegenerative disease with α-synuclein pathology predominating in the striatonigral and olivopontocerebellar systems. Mixed pathologies are considered to be of low frequency and mostly comprise primary age-related tauopathy or low levels of Alzheimer's disease-related neuropathologic change. Therefore, the concomitant presence of different misfolded proteins in the same brain region is less likely in multiple system atrophy. During the neuropathological evaluation of 21 consecutive multiple system atrophy cases, we identified four cases exhibiting an unusual discrepancy between high Thal amyloid-β phase and low transentorhinal Braak neurofibrillary tangle stage. We mapped α-synuclein pathology, measured the size and number of glial cytoplasmic inclusions and compared the amyloid-β peptides between multiple system atrophy and Alzheimer's disease. In addition, we performed α-synuclein seeding assay from the affected putamen samples. We performed genetic testing for , , , and . We refer to the four multiple system atrophy cases with discrepancy between amyloid-β and tau pathology as 'amyloid-β-predominant Alzheimer's disease neuropathologic change-multiple system atrophy' to distinguish these from multiple system atrophy with primary age-related tauopathy or multiple system atrophy with typical Alzheimer's disease neuropathologic change. As most multiple system atrophy cases with mixed pathologies reported in the literature, these cases did not show a peculiar clinical or MRI profile. Three amyloid-β-predominant Alzheimer's disease neuropathologic change-multiple system atrophy cases were available for genetic testing, and all carried the ɛ4 allele. The extent and severity of neuronal loss and α-synuclein pathology were not different compared with typical multiple system atrophy cases. Analysis of amyloid-β peptides revealed more premature amyloid-β plaques in amyloid-β-predominant Alzheimer's disease neuropathologic change-multiple system atrophy compared with Alzheimer's disease. α-Synuclein seeding amplification assay showed differences in the kinetics in two cases. This study highlights a rare mixed pathology variant of multiple system atrophy in which there is an anatomical meeting point of amyloid-β and α-synuclein, i.e. the striatum or cerebellum. Since biomarkers are entering clinical practice, these cases will be recognized, and the clinicians have to be informed that the prognosis is not necessarily different than in pure multiple system atrophy cases but that the effect of potential α-synuclein-based therapies might be influenced by the co-presence of amyloid-β in regions where α-synuclein also aggregates. We propose that mixed pathologies should be interpreted not only based on differences in the clinical phenotype but also on whether protein depositions regionally overlap, potentially leading to a different response to α-synuclein-targeted therapies.
PubMed: 38712319
DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcae141 -
Translational Neuroscience Jan 2024Freezing of gait (FOG) in Parkinson's disease (PD) has a poorly understood pathophysiology, which hinders treatment development. Recent work showed a dysfunctional...
BACKGROUND
Freezing of gait (FOG) in Parkinson's disease (PD) has a poorly understood pathophysiology, which hinders treatment development. Recent work showed a dysfunctional fronto-striato-limbic circuitry at rest in PD freezers compared to non-freezers in the dopamine "OFF" state. While other studies found that dopaminergic replacement therapy alters functional brain organization in PD, the specific effect of dopamine medication on fronto-striato-limbic functional connectivity in freezers remains unclear.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate how dopamine therapy alters resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the fronto-striato-limbic circuitry in PD freezers, and whether the degree of connectivity change is related to freezing severity and anxiety.
METHODS
Twenty-three PD FOG patients underwent MRI at rest (rsfMRI) in their clinically defined "OFF" and "ON" dopaminergic medication states. A seed-to-seed based analysis was performed between a priori defined limbic circuitry ROIs. Functional connectivity was compared between OFF and ON states. A secondary correlation analyses evaluated the relationship between Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)-Anxiety) and FOG Questionnaire with changes in rsFC from OFF to ON.
RESULTS
PD freezers' OFF compared to ON showed increased functional coupling between the right hippocampus and right caudate nucleus, and between the left putamen and left posterior parietal cortex (PPC). A negative association was found between HADS-Anxiety and the rsFC change from OFF to ON between the left amygdala and left prefrontal cortex, and left putamen and left PPC.
CONCLUSION
These findings suggest that dopaminergic medication partially modulates the frontoparietal-limbic-striatal circuitry in PD freezers, and that the influence of medication on the amygdala, may be related to clinical anxiety in freezer.
PubMed: 38708096
DOI: 10.1515/tnsci-2022-0336 -
Schizophrenia Research May 2024Previous investigations have revealed substantial differences in neuroimaging characteristics between healthy controls (HCs) and individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia...
Fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in sensory-motor networks and limbic system as a potential predictor of treatment response in patients with schizophrenia.
BACKGROUND
Previous investigations have revealed substantial differences in neuroimaging characteristics between healthy controls (HCs) and individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia (SCZ). However, we are not entirely sure how brain activity links to symptoms in schizophrenia, and there is a need for reliable brain imaging markers for treatment prediction.
METHODS
In this longitudinal study, we examined 56 individuals diagnosed with 56 SCZ and 51 HCs. The SCZ patients underwent a three-month course of antipsychotic treatment. We employed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) along with fractional Amplitude of Low Frequency Fluctuations (fALFF) and support vector regression (SVR) methods for data acquisition and subsequent analysis.
RESULTS
In this study, we initially noted lower fALFF values in the right postcentral/precentral gyrus and left postcentral gyrus, coupled with higher fALFF values in the left hippocampus and right putamen in SCZ patients compared to the HCs at baseline. However, when comparing fALFF values in brain regions with abnormal baseline fALFF values for SCZ patients who completed the follow-up, no significant differences in fALFF values were observed after 3 months of treatment compared to baseline data. The fALFF values in the right postcentral/precentral gyrus and left postcentral gyrus, and the left postcentral gyrus were useful in predicting treatment effects.
CONCLUSION
Our findings suggest that reduced fALFF values in the sensory-motor networks and increased fALFF values in the limbic system may constitute distinctive neurobiological features in SCZ patients. These findings may serve as potential neuroimaging markers for the prognosis of SCZ patients.
Topics: Humans; Schizophrenia; Male; Female; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Adult; Antipsychotic Agents; Limbic System; Longitudinal Studies; Young Adult; Treatment Outcome; Outcome Assessment, Health Care; Middle Aged; Support Vector Machine
PubMed: 38704344
DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2024.04.020 -
NPJ Parkinson's Disease May 2024Parkinson's disease (PD) is associated with aggregation of misfolded α-synuclein and other proteins, including tau. We designed a cross-sectional study to quantify the...
Parkinson's disease (PD) is associated with aggregation of misfolded α-synuclein and other proteins, including tau. We designed a cross-sectional study to quantify the brain binding of [C]PBB3 (a ligand known to bind to misfolded tau and possibly α-synuclein) as a proxy of misfolded protein aggregation in Parkinson's disease (PD) subjects with and without cognitive impairment and healthy controls (HC). In this cross-sectional study, nineteen cognitively normal PD subjects (CN-PD), thirteen cognitively impaired PD subjects (CI-PD) and ten HC underwent [C]PBB3 PET. A subset of the PD subjects also underwent PET imaging with [C](+)DTBZ to assess dopaminergic denervation and [C]PBR28 to assess neuroinflammation. Compared to HC, PD subjects showed higher [C]PBB3 binding in the posterior putamen but not the substantia nigra. There was no relationship across subjects between [C]PBB3 and [C]PBR28 binding in nigrostriatal regions. [C]PBB3 binding was increased in the anterior cingulate in CI-PD compared to CN-PD and HC, and there was an inverse correlation between cognitive scores and [C]PBB3 binding in this region across all PD subjects. Our results support a primary role of abnormal protein deposition localized to the posterior putamen in PD. This suggests that striatal axonal terminals are preferentially involved in the pathophysiology of PD. Furthermore, our findings suggest that anterior cingulate pathology might represent a significant in vivo marker of cognitive impairment in PD, in agreement with previous neuropathological studies.
PubMed: 38702305
DOI: 10.1038/s41531-024-00708-z -
NeuroImage Jul 2024Spatial normalization is a prerequisite step for the quantitative analysis of SPECT or PET brain images using volume-of-interest (VOI) template or voxel-based analysis....
INTRODUCTION
Spatial normalization is a prerequisite step for the quantitative analysis of SPECT or PET brain images using volume-of-interest (VOI) template or voxel-based analysis. MRI-guided spatial normalization is the gold standard, but the wide use of PET/CT or SPECT/CT in routine clinical practice makes CT-guided spatial normalization a necessary alternative. Ventricular enlargement is observed with aging, and it hampers the spatial normalization of the lateral ventricles and striatal regions, limiting their analysis. The aim of the present study was to propose a robust spatial normalization method based on CT scans that takes into account features of the aging brain to reduce bias in the CT-guided striatal analysis of SPECT images.
METHODS
We propose an enhanced CT-guided spatial normalization pipeline based on SPM12. Performance of the proposed pipeline was assessed on visually normal [I]-FP-CIT SPECT/CT images. SPM12 default CT-guided spatial normalization was used as reference method. The metrics assessed were the overlap between the spatially normalized lateral ventricles and caudate/putamen VOIs, and the computation of caudate and putamen specific binding ratios (SBR).
RESULTS
In total 231 subjects (mean age ± SD = 61.9 ± 15.5 years) were included in the statistical analysis. The mean overlap between the spatially normalized lateral ventricles of subjects and the caudate VOI and the mean SBR of caudate were respectively 38.40 % (± SD = 19.48 %) of the VOI and 1.77 (± 0.79) when performing SPM12 default spatial normalization. The mean overlap decreased to 9.13 % (± SD = 1.41 %, P < 0.001) of the VOI and the SBR of caudate increased to 2.38 (± 0.51, P < 0.0001) when performing the proposed pipeline. Spatially normalized lateral ventricles did not overlap with putamen VOI using either method. The mean putamen SBR value derived from the proposed spatial normalization (2.75 ± 0.54) was not significantly different from that derived from the default SPM12 spatial normalization (2.83 ± 0.52, P > 0.05).
CONCLUSION
The automatic CT-guided spatial normalization used herein led to a less biased spatial normalization of SPECT images, hence an improved semi-quantitative analysis. The proposed pipeline could be implemented in clinical routine to perform a more robust SBR computation using hybrid imaging.
Topics: Humans; Male; Female; Middle Aged; Aged; Adult; Corpus Striatum; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; Cerebral Ventricles; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Tropanes
PubMed: 38701993
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120631