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White matter tracts. White matter tracts shown in the left hemisphere: dorsal cingulum (purple), ventral cingulum, (yellow), SLF 1 (dark green), SLF 2 (red), SLF 3 (sky blue).
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Here we used the example of perinatal brain injury (PBI) associated with very preterm birth to study the brain’s ability to adapt to injury sustained early in life. In adulthood, individuals with PBI did not show significant deficits in working memory, but exhibited less activation in typical frontoparietal working memory areas. They also showed a...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... further examine the role of the white matter connections in working memory function following PBI, we then dissected the SLF. This tract system connects frontal and parietal cortex laterally to the dorsal cingulum ( Fig. 1) and has been described as a three-tract system in man, mirroring the mon- key's neuroanatomy (Thiebaut de Schotten et al., 2012). According to Thie- baut de Schotten and colleagues, "In humans, the first branch of the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF1) connects the superior parietal lobule and pre- cuneus (BA 5 and 7) with the ...
Context 2
... further examine the role of the white matter connections in working memory function following PBI, we then dissected the SLF. This tract system connects frontal and parietal cortex laterally to the dorsal cingulum ( Fig. 1) and has been described as a three-tract system in man, mirroring the monkey's neuroanatomy (Thiebaut de Schotten et al., 2012). According to Thiebaut de Schotten and colleagues, "In humans, the first branch of the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF1) connects the superior parietal lobule and precuneus (BA 5 and 7) with the superior ...
Context 3
... probe whether this activation was compensatory or detrimental, we then correlated activation in this region and task performance on the threeback condition (which did not suffer the ceiling effects seen in the other conditions), using a d measure. R-to-z transformations were used to statistically compare correlation coefficients (Nieuwenhuis et al., 2011). ...
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The claustrum is a thin grey matter structure which is involved in a wide brain network. Previous studies suggested a link between claustrum and Parkinson’s Disease (PD), showing how α-synuclein pathology may affect claustral neurons as well as how α-synuclein immunoreactivity may correlate with the onset of cognitive dysfunctions. Our aim is to in...
Citations
... In studies that performed resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI), regions of interest included motor cortex and thalamus [28,42], default mode [1], executive-control, salience and attention networks [16] and interhemispheric connectivity [39]. Task-based functional MRI (tb-fMRI) studies assessed motor performance, working memory, verbal fluency, selective attention and response inhibition, with regions of interest including dorsolateral, dorsomedial and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, posterior parietal cortex, cerebellum, inferior frontal gyrus, [13,14,24,32,40] (Table 4). ...
... Within that methodology, 4/31 used probabilistic tractography with seed and target ROIs to capture a specific neural fiber tract, measure tract volume, and describe trajectory in a qualitative manner [21,22,41,52]. Froudist-Walsh et al. used a probabilistic model of whole-brain tractography with spherical deconvolution to extract tracts of interest and subsequently used hindrance-modulated orientational anisotropy (HMOA) as a more precise measure of white matter tract integrity, as opposed to traditional DTI measures [13]. ...
... Of note, Huang et al. further analyzed both static and dynamic functional network connectivity to identify temporal variability within independent components' connectivity as a measure of abnormal patterns [17]. Task-based fMRI studies generally reported quantitative results using probabilistic models for BOLD activation regions with mixed effects models or analysis of variance (ANOVA) to assess significance [13,24,33] or reported qualitative statistics of task-based activation clusters [14,40]. ...
Optimizing the treatment of hydrocephalus remains a major challenge in adult and pediatric neurosurgery. Currently, clinical treatment relies heavily on anatomic imaging of ventricular size and clinical presentation. The emergence of functional and structural brain connectivity imaging has provided the basis for a new paradigm in the management of hydrocephalus. Here we review the pertinent advances in this field. Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines for scoping reviews, we searched PubMed for relevant literature from 1994 to April 2023 using hydrocephalus and MRI-related terms. Included articles reported original MRI data on human subjects with hydrocephalus, while excluding non-English or pre-1994 publications that didn't match the study framework. The review identified 44 studies that investigated functional and/or structural connectivity using various MRI techniques across different hydrocephalus populations. While there is significant heterogeneity in imaging technology and connectivity analysis, there is broad consensus in the literature that 1) hydrocephalus is associated with disruption of functional and structural connectivity, 2) this disruption in cerebral connectivity can be further associated with neurologic compromise 3) timely treatment of hydrocephalus restores both cerebral connectivity and neurologic compromise. The robustness and consistency of these findings vary as a function of patient age, hydrocephalus etiology, and the connectivity region of interest studied. Functional and structural brain connectivity imaging shows potential as an imaging biomarker that may facilitate optimization of hydrocephalus treatment. Future research should focus on standardizing regions of interest as well as identifying connectivity analysis most pertinent to clinical outcome.
... Exemplary grey matter alterations include volume reduction in thalamus, striatum, claustrum, basal forebrain, and temporal cortices, as well as altered gyrification, especially in associative cortices (Grothe et al., 2017;Karolis et al., 2017;Meng et al., 2016;Nosarti et al., 2008;Pierson et al., 2007). In addition, evidence for functional changes, for example, altered patterns of blood oxygenation in taskbased-and resting-state functional MRI (fMRI), overlap with structural changes for premature-born subjects Daamen, Bäuml, Scheef, Meng, et al., 2015;Damaraju et al., 2010;Doria et al., 2010;Froudist-Walsh et al., 2015;Lubsen et al., 2011;Shang et al., 2018;Smyser et al., 2010;White et al., 2014). Both structural and functional changes have been associated with cognitive impairment not only in children but also in premature-born adults, indicating a persistent impact of premature birth on neurocognitive development and functioning (Ball et al., 2015;Farajdokht et al., 2017;Hedderich et al., 2019;Northam et al., 2011;Nosarti et al., 2014;Shang et al., 2018). ...
While animal models indicate altered brain dopaminergic neurotransmission after premature birth, corresponding evidence in humans is scarce due to missing molecular imaging studies. To overcome this limitation, we studied dopaminergic neurotransmission changes in human prematurity indirectly by evaluating the spatial co-localization of regional alterations in blood oxygenation fluctuations with the distribution of adult dopaminergic neurotransmission. The study cohort comprised 99 very premature-born (<32 weeks of gestation and/or birth weight below 1500 g) and 107 full-term born young adults, being assessed by resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) and IQ testing. Normative molecular imaging dopamine neurotransmission maps were derived from independent healthy control groups. We computed the co-localization of local (rs-fMRI) activity alterations in premature-born adults with respect to term-born individuals to different measures of dopaminergic neurotransmission. We performed selectivity analyses regarding other neuromodulatory systems and MRI measures. In addition, we tested if the strength of the co-localization is related to perinatal measures and IQ. We found selectively altered co-localization of rs-fMRI activity in the premature-born cohort with dopamine-2/3-receptor availability in premature-born adults. Alterations were specific for the dopaminergic system but not for the used MRI measure. The strength of the co-localization was negatively correlated with IQ. In line with animal studies, our findings support the notion of altered dopaminergic neurotransmission in prematurity which is associated with cognitive performance.
... This tract runs anterior to the dorsal cingulum, however is separated in its entirety by the cingulate sulcus. The cingulum (Fig. 3) plays a key role in supporting the DMN, and is involved during mindwandering G , autobiographical, episodic, and semantic memory (Froudist-Walsh et al., 2015;Shapira-Lichter et al., 2013). When performing a goal-directed task, the DMN is deactivated when the DAN G is engaged, despite their close anatomical correspondence (Anticevic et al., 2012;Fransson, 2005). ...
Attention, working memory, and executive control are commonly considered distinct cognitive functions with important reciprocal interactions. Yet, longstanding evidence from lesion studies has demonstrated both overlap and dissociation in their behavioural expression and anatomical underpinnings, suggesting that a lower dimensional framework could be employed to further identify processes supporting goal-directed behaviour. Here, we describe the anatomical and functional correspondence between attention, working memory, and executive control by providing an overview of cognitive models, as well as recent data from lesion studies, invasive and non-invasive multimodal neuroimaging and brain stimulation. We emphasize the benefits of considering converging evidence from multiple methodologies centred on the identification of brain mechanisms supporting goal-driven behaviour. We propose that expanding on this approach should enable the construction of a comprehensive anatomo-functional framework with testable new hypotheses, and aid clinical neuroscience to intervene on impairments of executive functions.
... Additionally, the lack of connectivity to the PFC and relatively fewer outgoing white matter streamlines may support this interpretation of more intensive local processing and inefficient distribution to other brain areas. A similar pattern of structural reductions and compensatory BOLD hyperactivity has been reported in PT adults during a working memory task (Froudist-Walsh et al., 2015). Thus, this pattern may be a common form of 'compensatory plasticity' throughout the brain. ...
Objective
Extremely preterm birth has been associated with atypical visual and neural processing of faces, as well as differences in gray matter structure in visual processing areas relative to full-term peers. In particular, the right fusiform gyrus, a core visual area involved in face processing, has been shown to have structural and functional differences between preterm and full-term individuals from childhood through early adulthood. The current study used multiple neuroimaging modalities to build a machine learning model based on the right fusiform gyrus to classify extremely preterm birth status.
Method
Extremely preterm adolescents (n=20) and full-term peers (n=24) underwent structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Group differences in gray matter density, measured via voxel-based morphometry (VBM), and blood-oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response to face stimuli were explored within the right fusiform. Using group difference clusters as seed regions, analyses investigating outgoing white matter streamlines, regional homogeneity, and functional connectivity during a face processing task and at rest were conducted. A data driven approach was utilized to determine the most discriminative combination of these features within a linear support vector machine classifier.
Results
Group differences in two partially overlapping clusters emerged: one from the VBM analysis showing less density in the extremely preterm cohort and one from BOLD response to faces showing greater activation in the extremely preterm relative to full-term youth. A classifier fit to the data from the cluster identified in the BOLD analysis achieved an accuracy score of 88.64% when BOLD, gray matter density, regional homogeneity, and functional connectivity during the task and at rest were included. A classifier fit to the data from the cluster identified in the VBM analysis achieved an accuracy score of 95.45% when only BOLD, gray matter density, and regional homogeneity were included.
Conclusion
Consistent with previous findings, we observed neural differences in extremely preterm youth in an area that plays an important role in face processing. Multimodal analyses revealed differences in structure, function, and connectivity that, when taken together, accurately distinguish extremely preterm from full-term born youth. Our findings suggest a compensatory role of the fusiform where less dense gray matter is countered by increased local BOLD signal. Importantly, sub-threshold differences in many modalities within the same region were informative when distinguishing between extremely preterm and full-term youth.
... Healthy cognitive functioning is dependent on effective communication between Abbreviations: VPT = very preterm birth; FT = full term; WASI = Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence; fMRI = functional magnetic resonance imaging; MD = mean diffusivity; FA = fractional anisotropy; BOLD = blood oxygen level dependent; PVH = periventricular haemorrhage; PBI = perinatal brain injury. In very preterm adults enrolled in the UCLH study, we have observed abnormalities both in the microstructure (Allin et al., 2011;Froudist-Walsh et al., 2015;Tseng et al., 2019;Tseng et al., 2017) and volumes Nosarti et al., 2014;Tseng et al., 2017) of white matter structures compared to term-born controls. Overlapping observations have also been made in other adult cohorts, showing microstructural changes particularly in the corpus callosum and cingulum (Eikenes et al., 2011;Meng et al., 2016;Pascoe et al., 2019) but also extending to other core white matter tracts, which is further reflected in reduced global white matter volume in preterm individuals (Soria-Pastor et al., 2008). ...
Preterm birth is associated with an elevated risk of developmental and adult psychiatric disorders, including psychosis. In this review, we evaluate the implications of neurodevelopmental, cognitive, motor, and social sequelae of preterm birth for developing psychosis, with an emphasis on outcomes observed in adulthood. Abnormal brain development precipitated by early exposure to the extra-uterine environment, and exacerbated by neuroinflammation, neonatal brain injury, and genetic vulnerability, can result in alterations of brain structure and function persisting into adulthood. These alterations, including abnormal regional brain volumes and white matter macro- and micro-structure, can critically impair functional (e.g. frontoparietal and thalamocortical) network connectivity in a manner characteristic of psychotic illness. The resulting executive, social, and motor dysfunctions may constitute the basis for behavioural vulnerability ultimately giving rise to psychotic symptomatology. There are many pathways to psychosis, but elucidating more precisely the mechanisms whereby preterm birth increases risk may shed light on that route consequent upon early neurodevelopmental insult.
... Furthermore, it is also possible for structural changes (e.g. due to aberrant neurodevelopment following perinatal brain injury) to be, to some extent, compensated by functional reorganisation (Froudist-Walsh et al., 2015). Further research investigating the temporal correspondence of structural and functional neural correlates of general psychopathology will therefore be crucial to shed further light on the dynamic processes underlying vulnerability. ...
Several decades of neuroimaging research in psychiatry have shed light on structural and functional neural abnormalities associated with individual psychiatric disorders. However, there is increasing evidence for substantial overlap in the patterns of neural dysfunction seen across disorders, suggesting that risk for psychiatric illness may be shared across diagnostic boundaries. Gaining insights on the existence of shared neural mechanisms which may transdiagnostically underlie psychopathology is important for psychiatric research in order to tease apart the unique and common aspects of different disorders, but also clinically, so as to help identify individuals early on who may be biologically vulnerable to psychiatric disorder in general. In this narrative review, we first evaluate recent studies investigating the functional and structural neural correlates of a general psychopathology factor, which is thought to reflect the shared variance across common mental health symptoms and therefore index psychiatric vulnerability. We then link insights from this research to existing meta-analytic evidence for shared patterns of neural dysfunction across categorical psychiatric disorders. We conclude by providing an integrative account of vulnerability to mental illness, whereby delayed or disrupted maturation of large-scale networks (particularly default-mode, executive, and sensorimotor networks), and more generally between-network connectivity, results in a compromised ability to integrate and switch between internally and externally focused tasks.
... regions that are typically involved in specific cognitive operations, but also the presence of compensatory neural processes, whereby very preterm individuals rely on different neural pathways from those observed in controls in order to adequately perform a given task [35,36]. In this paper, we will summarise the results of fMRI studies that have investigated participants' neural activation associated with learning and memory, executive function and emotion processing. ...
... This process continues throughout childhood and facilitates remodelling of neurosynaptic maps [69], while organisation of neural networks is less functionally crystallized than later in adulthood [70]. Such flexibility may be an advantage for the reorganization of functions in the preterm brain, although as shown by some of the fMRI studies reviewed here, functional remapping, as reflected by altered haemodynamic response patterns, may be both adaptive and maladaptive [33,35,62]. ...
... The collection of multiple MRI modalities in a single subject has increased in popularity in recent years [33,35,105]. Multimodal imaging has the potential to increase our current understanding of the neurodevelopmental alterations underlying the long-term sequelae of very preterm birth, as it integrates structural and functional features associated with specific outcomes that may not be captured by only one modality at a time. ...
Very preterm birth (<32 weeks of gestation) has been associated with lifelong difficulties in a variety of neurocognitive functions. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) combined with advanced analytical approaches have been employed in order to increase our understanding of the neurodevelopmental problems that many very preterm born individuals face as they grow up. In this review, we will focus on two novel imaging techniques that have explored relationships between specific brain mechanisms and behavioural outcomes. These are functional MRI, which maps regional, time-varying changes in brain metabolism and diffusion-weighted MRI, which measures the displacement of water molecules in tissue and provides quantitative information about tissue microstructure. Identifying the neurobiological underpinning of the long-term sequelae associated with very preterm birth could inform the development and implementation of preventative interventions (before any cognitive problem emerges) and could facilitate the identification of behavioural targets for improving the life course outcomes of very preterm individuals.
... As the more typical network appeared to be established with increasing age, it can as well be considered as a compensational process. However, other studies have shown differences in brain activation between prematurely born and control groups also in adulthood during tasks assessing learning and memory of visual material (Brittain et al., 2014;Froudist-Walsh et al., 2015;Narberhaus et al., 2009). Instead of reflecting compensatory neural processes, the activation difference between the adolescents born prematurely and full-term in our study might likewise be the result of behavioral compensation, such as the use of different behavioral strategies during task performance. ...
Objectives:
Impairments in visual perception are among the most common developmental difficulties related to being born prematurely, and they are often accompanied by problems in other developmental domains. Neural activation in participants born prematurely and full-term during tasks that assess several areas of visual perception has not been studied. To better understand the neural substrates of the visual perceptual impairments, we compared behavioral performance and brain activations during visual perception tasks in adolescents born very preterm (birth weight ≤1500 g or gestational age <32 weeks) and full-term.
Methods:
Tasks assessing visual closure, discrimination of a deviating figure, and discrimination of figure and ground from the Motor-Free Visual Perception Test, Third Edition were performed by participants born very preterm (n = 37) and full-term (n = 34) at 12 years of age during functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Results:
Behavioral performance in the visual perception tasks did not differ between the groups. However, during the visual closure task, brain activation was significantly stronger in the group born very preterm in a number of areas including the frontal, anterior cingulate, temporal, and posterior medial parietal/cingulate cortices, as well as in parts of the cerebellum, thalamus, and caudate nucleus.
Conclusions:
Differing activations during the visual closure task potentially reflect a compensatory neural process related to premature birth or lesser neural efficiency or may be a result of the use of compensatory behavioral strategies in the study group born very preterm.
... Very preterm adults who had sustained severe perinatal brain injury (i.e., periventricular haemorrhage and ventricular dilation) performed worse than those with less severe injuries on more demanding working memory trials and displayed load-dependent decreases in haemodynamic responses in left inferior frontal gyrus [52]. In a different study, however, we observed that increased activation in the perisylvian cortex acted as a compensatory mechanism in very preterm adults who had suffered severe perinatal brain injury as this activation correlated with better working memory performance in this subgroup, but not in very preterm adults with less severe injuries and term-born controls [59]. This also indicates that structural alterations tend to accompany changes in functional activation. ...
... However, the relationship between structural and functional alterations remains poorly understood as only a few studies to date have used more than one imaging modality (i.e. multimodal imaging) [34,55,59,60]. Multimodality represents a thorough approach in the search for potential biomarkers of cognitive deficits following very preterm birth, as it gains insight into the integration of structural and functional features associated with specific outcomes that may not be captured using single modalities. ...
Very preterm birth (<33 weeks of gestation) has been associated with alterations in structural and functional brain development in regions that are believed to underlie a variety of cognitive processes. While such alterations have been often studied in the context of cognitive vulnerability, early disruption to programmed developmental processes may also lead to neuroplastic and functional adaptations, which support cognitive performance. In this review, we will focus on executive function and intelligence as the main cognitive outcomes following very preterm birth in adolescence and adulthood in relation to their structural and functional neurobiological correlates. The neuroimaging modalities we review provide quantitative assessments of brain morphology, white matter macro and micro-structure, structural and functional connectivity and haemodynamic responses associated with specific cognitive operations. Identifying the neurobiological underpinning of the long-term sequelae associated with very preterm birth may guide the development and implementation of targeted neurobehaviourally-informed interventions for those at high risk.
... Despite the lack of training-induced working memory improvements in our trial (Anderson et al., 2018), it is possible that Cogmed may induce neuroplastic changes in EP/ELBW children. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful technique that has been shown to be sensitive to subtle changes in brain structure and function in preterm-born individuals, even in the absence of cognitive changes (Froudist-Walsh et al., 2015). There have not been any studies on the effects of Cogmed on the brain in preterm children, however, there is some evidence that Cogmed is associated with brain structural and functional changes in other clinical groups. ...
This study in children born extremely preterm (EP; <28 weeks’ gestational age) or extremely low birth weight (ELBW; <1,000 g) investigated whether adaptive working memory training using Cogmed® is associated with structural and/or functional brain changes compared with a placebo program. Ninety‐one EP/ELBW children were recruited at a mean (standard deviation) age of 7.8 (0.4) years. Children were randomly allocated to Cogmed or placebo (45‐min sessions, 5 days a week over 5–7 weeks). A subset had usable magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data pretraining and 2 weeks posttraining (structural, n = 48; diffusion, n = 43; task‐based functional, n = 18). Statistical analyses examined whether cortical morphometry, white matter microstructure and blood oxygenation level‐dependent (BOLD) signal during an n‐back working memory task changed from pretraining to posttraining in the Cogmed and placebo groups separately. Interaction analyses between time point and group were then performed. There was a significant increase in neurite density in several white matter regions from pretraining to posttraining in both the Cogmed and placebo groups. BOLD signal in the posterior cingulate and precuneus cortices during the n‐back task increased from pretraining to posttraining in the Cogmed but not placebo group. Evidence for group‐by‐time interactions for the MRI measures was weak, suggesting that brain changes generally did not differ between Cogmed and placebo groups. Overall, while some structural and functional MRI changes between the pretraining and posttraining period in EP/ELBW children were observed, there was little evidence of training‐induced neuroplasticity, with changes generally identified in both groups. Trial registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, anzctr.org.au; ACTRN12612000124831.
