A Volumetric Approach to Quantifying Region-to-Region White Matter Connectivity in Diffusion Tensor MRI

To determine whether white matter network disruption mediates the association between MRI markers of cerebrovascular disease (CeVD) and cognitive impairment. Participants (n = 253, aged ≥60 years) from the Epidemiology of Dementia in Singapore study underwent neuropsychological assessments and MRI. CeVD markers were defined as lacunes, white matter hyperintensities (WMH), microbleeds, cortical microinfarcts, cortical infarcts and intracranial stenosis (ICS). White matter microstructure damage was measured as fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity by tract based spatial statistics from diffusion tensor imaging. Cognitive function was summarized as domain-specific Z-scores. Lacunar counts, WMH volume and ICS were associated with worse performance in executive function, attention, language, verbal and visual memory. These three CeVD markers were also associated with white matter microstructural damage in the projection, commissural, association, and limbic fibers. Path analyses showed that lacunar counts, higher WMH volume and ICS were associated with executive and verbal memory impairment via white matter disruption in commissural fibers whereas impairment in the attention, visual memory and language were mediated through projection fibers. Our study shows that the abnormalities in white matter connectivity may underlie the relationship between CeVD and cognition. Further longitudinal studies are needed to understand the cause-effect relationship between CeVD, white matter damage and cognition.

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IC-P-091: Diffusion Tensor MRI in Preclinical Alzheimer's Disease: Decreased Fractional Anisotropy in Parahippocampal White Matter in MCI and Older Adults with Cognitive Complaints

Alzheimer s & Dementia ◽

10.1016/j.jalz.2010.05.105 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

pp. S37-S38 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Yang Wang ◽

John D. West ◽

Laura A. Flashman ◽

Heather A. Wishart ◽

Laura A. Rabin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Older Adults ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

White Matter ◽

Fractional Anisotropy ◽

Diffusion Tensor ◽

Diffusion Tensor Mri ◽

Cognitive Complaints ◽

Preclinical Alzheimer’S Disease

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Regions of white matter abnormalities in the arcuate fasciculus in veterans with anger and aggression problems

Brain Structure and Function ◽

10.1007/s00429-019-02016-2 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 225 (4) ◽

pp. 1401-1411 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Szabolcs David ◽

Lieke Heesink ◽

Elbert Geuze ◽

Thomas Gladwin ◽

Jack van Honk ◽

...

Keyword(s):

White Matter ◽

Diffusion Tensor ◽

Military Veterans ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Microstructural Properties ◽

Uncinate Fasciculus ◽

Arcuate Fasciculus ◽

White Matter Connectivity ◽

Diffusion Tensor Imaging Tractography

AbstractAggression after military deployment is a common occurrence in veterans. Neurobiological research has shown that aggression is associated with a dysfunction in a network connecting brain regions implicated in threat processing and emotion regulation. However, aggression may also be related to deficits in networks underlying communication and social cognition. The uncinate and arcuate fasciculi are integral to these networks, thus studying potential abnormalities in these white matter connections can further our understanding of anger and aggression problems in military veterans. Here, we use diffusion tensor imaging tractography to investigate white matter microstructural properties of the uncinate fasciculus and the arcuate fasciculus in veterans with and without anger and aggression problems. A control tract, the parahippocampal cingulum was also included in the analyses. More specifically, fractional anisotropy (FA) estimates are derived along the trajectory from all fiber pathways and compared between both groups. No between-group FA differences are observed for the uncinate fasciculus and the cingulum, however parts of the arcuate fasciculus show a significantly lower FA in the group of veterans with aggression and anger problems. Our data suggest that abnormalities in arcuate fasciculus white matter connectivity that are related to self-regulation may play an important role in the etiology of anger and aggression in military veterans.

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Inferring White Matter Geometry from Diffusion Tensor MRI: Application to Connectivity Mapping

Lecture Notes in Computer Science - Computer Vision - ECCV 2004 ◽

10.1007/978-3-540-24673-2_11 ◽

2004 ◽

pp. 127-140 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Christophe Lenglet ◽

Rachid Deriche ◽

Olivier Faugeras

Keyword(s):

White Matter ◽

Diffusion Tensor ◽

Diffusion Tensor Mri ◽

Connectivity Mapping

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Brain connectivity in body dysmorphic disorder compared with controls: a diffusion tensor imaging study

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291713000421 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 43 (12) ◽

pp. 2513-2521 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

B. G. Buchanan ◽

S. L. Rossell ◽

J. J. Maller ◽

W. L. Toh ◽

S. Brennan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Diffusion Tensor Imaging ◽

White Matter ◽

Body Dysmorphic Disorder ◽

Diffusion Tensor ◽

Brain Connectivity ◽

Imaging Study ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Caudate Nuclei ◽

White Matter Connectivity ◽

The Brain

BackgroundSeveral neuroimaging studies have investigated brain grey matter in people with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), showing possible abnormalities in the limbic system, orbitofrontal cortex, caudate nuclei and temporal lobes. This study takes these findings forward by investigating white matter properties in BDD compared with controls using diffusion tensor imaging. It was hypothesized that the BDD sample would have widespread significantly reduced white matter connectivity as characterized by fractional anisotropy (FA).MethodA total of 20 participants with BDD and 20 healthy controls matched on age, gender and handedness underwent diffusion tensor imaging. FA, a measure of water diffusion within a voxel, was compared between groups on a voxel-by-voxel basis across the brain using tract-based spatial statistics within the FSL package.ResultsResults showed that, compared with healthy controls, BDD patients demonstrated significantly lower FA (p < 0.05) in most major white matter tracts throughout the brain, including in the superior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus and corpus callosum. Lower FA levels could be accounted for by increased radial diffusivity as characterized by eigenvalues 2 and 3. No area of higher FA was found in BDD.ConclusionsThis study provided the first evidence of compromised white matter integrity within BDD patients. This suggests that there are inefficient connections between different brain areas, which may explain the cognitive and emotion regulation deficits within BDD patients.

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