Brain cortical thickness

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with greater long-term grey-matter loss in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). METHODS: 85 patients with MCI were identified, including 26 with a previous history of traumatic brain injury (MCI[TBI-]) and 59 without (MCI[TBI+]). Cortical thickness was evaluated by segmenting T1-weighted MRI scans acquired longitudinally over a 2-year period. Bayesian multilevel modelling was used to evaluate group differences in baseline cortical thickness and longitudinal change, as well as group differences in neuropsychological measures of executive function...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The eye is a well-established model of brain structure and function, yet region-specific structural correlations between the retina and the brain remain underexplored. Therefore, we aim to explore and describe the relationships between the retinal layer thicknesses and brain magnetic resonance image (MRI)-derived phenotypes in UK Biobank. METHODS: Participants with both quality-controlled optical coherence tomography (OCT) and brain MRI were included in this study...

Parkinson's disease is a common and debilitating neurodegenerative disorder, with over half of patients progressing to postural instability, dementia or death within 10 years of diagnosis. However, the onset and rate of progression to poor outcomes is highly variable, underpinned by heterogeneity in underlying pathological processes. Quantitative and sensitive measures predicting poor outcomes will be critical for targeted treatment, but most studies to date have been limited to a single modality or assessed patients with established cognitive impairment...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pathogenic variants in GRIN2A are associated with a spectrum of epilepsy-aphasia syndromes (EASs). Seizures as well as speech and language disorders occur frequently but vary widely in severity, both between individuals and across the life span. The link between this phenotypic spectrum and brain characteristics is unknown. Specifically, altered brain networks at the root of speech and language deficits remain to be identified. Patients with pathogenic variants in GRIN2A offer an opportunity to interrogate the impact of glutamate receptor dysfunction on brain development...

While alterations in cortical thickness have been widely observed in individuals with alcohol dependence, knowledge about cortical thickness-based structural covariance networks is limited. This study aimed to explore the topological disorganization of structural covariance networks based on cortical thickness at the single-subject level among patients with alcohol dependence. Structural imaging data were obtained from 61 patients with alcohol dependence during early abstinence and 59 healthy controls. The single-subject structural covariance networks were constructed based on cortical thickness data from 68 brain regions and were analyzed using graph theory...

In neuroimaging studies, combining data collected from multiple study sites or scanners is becoming common to increase the reproducibility of scientific discoveries. At the same time, unwanted variations arise by using different scanners (inter-scanner biases), which need to be corrected before downstream analyses to facilitate replicable research and prevent spurious findings. While statistical harmonization methods such as ComBat have become popular in mitigating inter-scanner biases in neuroimaging, recent methodological advances have shown that harmonizing heterogeneous covariances results in higher data quality...

INTRODUCTION: There are well-established relationships between aging and neurodegenerative changes, and between aging and hearing loss. The goal of this study was to determine how structural brain aging is influenced by hearing loss. METHODS: Human Connectome Project Aging (HCP-A) data were analyzed, including T1-weighted MRI and Words in Noise (WIN) thresholds (n=623). Freesurfer extracted gray and white matter volume, and cortical thickness, area, and curvature...

A mounting body of evidences suggests that patients with chronic heart failure (HF) frequently experience cognitive impairments, but the neuroanatomical mechanism underlying these impairments remains elusive. In this retrospective study, 49 chronic HF patients and 49 healthy controls (HCs) underwent brain structural MRI scans and cognitive assessments. Cortical morphology index (cortical thickness, complexity, sulcal depth and gyrification) were evaluated. Correlations between cortical morphology and cognitive scores and clinical variables were explored...

BACKGROUND: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a pervasive, chronic sleep-related respiratory condition that causes brain structural alterations and cognitive impairments. However, the causal association of OSA with brain morphology and cognitive performance has not been determined. METHODS: We conducted a two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to investigate the causal relationship between OSA and a range of neurocognitive characteristics, including brain cortical structure, brain subcortical structure, brain structural change across the lifespan, and cognitive performance...

BACKGROUND: Driving is the preferred mode of transportation for adults across the healthy age span. However, motor vehicle crashes are among the leading causes of injury and death, especially for older adults, and under distracted driving conditions. Understanding the neuroanatomical basis of driving may inform interventions that minimize crashes. This exploratory study examined the neuroanatomical correlates of undistracted and distracted simulated straight driving. METHODS: One-hundred-and-thirty-eight participants (40...

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: To differentiate early-onset schizophrenia (EOS) from early-onset bipolar disorder (EBD) using surface-based morphometry measurements and brain volumes using machine learning (ML) algorithms. METHOD: High-resolution T1 -weighted images were obtained to measure cortical thickness (CT), gyrification, gyrification index (GI), sulcal depth (SD), fractal dimension (FD), and brain volumes. After the feature selection step, ML classifiers were applied for each feature set and the combination of them...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the associations between prescription opioid exposures in community-dwelling older adults and gray and white matter structure by magnetic resonance imaging. METHODS: Secondary analysis was conducted of a prospective, longitudinal population-based cohort study employing cross-sectional imaging of older adult (≥65 years) enrollees between November 1, 2004, and December 31, 2017. Gray matter outcomes included cortical thickness in 41 structures and subcortical volumes in 6 structures...

OBJECTIVES: The definition and assessment methods for subjective cognitive decline (SCD) vary among studies. We aimed to investigate which features or assessment methods of SCD best predict Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related structural atrophy patterns. METHODS: We assessed 104 individuals aged 55+ with memory complaints but normal cognitive screening. Our research questions were as follows: To improve the prediction of AD related morphological changes, (1) Would the use of a standardized cognitive screening scale be beneficial? (2) Is conducting a thorough neuropsychological evaluation necessary instead of relying solely on cognitive screening tests? (3) Should we apply SCD-plus research criteria, and if so, which criterion would be the most effective? (4) Is it necessary to consider medical and psychiatric comorbidities, vitamin deficiencies, vascular burden on MRI, and family history? We utilized Freesurfer to analyze cortical thickness and regional brain volume meta-scores linked to AD or predicting its development...

Resilient individuals are less likely to develop psychiatric disorders despite extreme psychological distress. This study investigated the multimodal structural neural correlates of dispositional resilience among healthy individuals. Participants included 92 healthy individuals. The Korean version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale and other psychological measures were used. Gray matter volumes (GMVs), cortical thickness, local gyrification index (LGI), and white matter (WM) microstructures were analyzed using voxel-based morphometry, FreeSurfer, and tract-based spatial statistics, respectively...

BACKGROUND: Despite regional brain structural changes having been reported in patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP), the topological properties of structural covariance networks (SCNs), which refer to the organization of the SCNs, remain unclear. This study applied graph theoretical analysis to explore the alterations of the topological properties of SCNs, aiming to comprehend the integration and separation of SCNs in patients with CLBP. METHODS: A total of 38 patients with CLBP and 38 healthy controls (HCs), balanced for age and sex, were scanned using three-dimensional T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging...

Metformin, the most commonly prescribed drug for the treatment of diabetes, is increasingly used during pregnancy to address various disorders such as diabetes, obesity, preeclampsia, and metabolic diseases. However, its impact on neocortex development remains unclear. Here, we investigated the direct effects of metformin on neocortex development, focusing on ERK and p35/CDK5 regulation. Using a pregnant rat model, we found that metformin treatment during pregnancy induces small for gestational age (SGA) and reduces relative cortical thickness in embryos and neonates...

Background and Objectives : Magnetic resonance imaging is vital for diagnosing cognitive decline. Brodmann areas (BA), distinct regions of the cerebral cortex categorized by cytoarchitectural variances, provide insights into cognitive function. This study aims to compare cortical thickness measurements across brain areas identified by BA mapping. We assessed these measurements among patients with and without cognitive impairment, and across groups categorized by cognitive performance levels using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test...

(1) Background: Bilingualism has been reported to shape the brain by inducing cortical changes in cortical and subcortical language and executive networks. Similar yet different to bilingualism, diglossia is common in Switzerland, where the German-speaking population switches between an everyday spoken Swiss German (CH-GER) dialect and the standard German (stGER) used for reading and writing. However, no data are available for diglossia, defined as the use of different varieties or dialects of the same language, regarding brain structure...

PURPOSE: To determine the best predictor of lesion volume induced by magnetic resonance (MR)-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) thalamotomy in patients with tremor-dominant symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD) and essential tremor (ET) patients. METHODS: Thirty-six neurological patients with medication-refractory tremor (n°19 PD; n°17 ET) were treated using a commercial MRgFUS brain system (Exablate Neuro 4000, Insightec) integrated with a 1.5 T MRI unit (Sigma HDxt; GE Medical System)...

Formal thought disorder (FTD) is a clinical key factor in schizophrenia, but the neurobiological underpinnings remain unclear. In particular, the relationship between FTD symptom dimensions and patterns of regional brain volume loss in schizophrenia remains to be established in large cohorts. Even less is known about the cellular basis of FTD. Our study addresses these major obstacles by enrolling a large multi-site cohort acquired by the ENIGMA Schizophrenia Working Group (752 schizophrenia patients and 1256 controls), to unravel the neuroanatomy of FTD in schizophrenia and using virtual histology tools on implicated brain regions to investigate the cellular basis...