scholarly journals Cognitive interference processing in adults with childhood craniopharyngioma using functional magnetic resonance imaging

Endocrine ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Svärd ◽  
Cecilia Follin ◽  
Sigridur Fjalldal ◽  
Robin Hellerstedt ◽  
Peter Mannfolk ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose To assess cognitive interference processing in adults with childhood craniopharyngioma (CP), with and without hypothalamic injury, respectively, in terms of behavioral performance and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activity, using the multi-source interference task (MSIT). Methods Twenty-eight CP patients (median age 34.5 [29.0–39.5] years) were investigated at median 20.5 (16.3–28.8) years after treatment with surgical resection and in some cases additional radiotherapy (n = 10) and compared to 29 matched controls (median age 37.0 [32.5–42.0] years). The subjects performed the MSIT during fMRI acquisition and behavioral performance in terms of response times (ms) and accuracy performance (%) were recorded. Results The MSIT activated the cingulo-fronto-parietal (CFP) attention network in both CP patients and controls. No differences were found in behavioral performance nor fMRI activity between CP patients (interference effect 333.9 [287.3–367.1] ms and 3.1 [1.6–5.6]%, respectively) and controls (309.1 [276.4–361.0] ms and 2.6 [1.6–4.9]%). No differences were found in behavioral performance nor fMRI activity between the two subgroups with (332.0 [283.6–353.4] ms and 4.2 [2.3–5.7]%, respectively) and without hypothalamic injury (355.7 [293.7–388.7] ms and 2.1 [1.0–5.2]%, respectively), respectively, and controls. Conclusion Adults with childhood CP performed cognitive interference processing equally well as controls and demonstrated no compensatory fMRI activity in the CFP attention network compared to controls. This was also true for the two subgroups with and without hypothalamic injury. The results can be useful to better characterize this condition, and to optimize treatment and support for these individuals.

Hypertension ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (5) ◽  
pp. 1480-1490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Carnevale ◽  
Angelo Maffei ◽  
Alessandro Landolfi ◽  
Giovanni Grillea ◽  
Daniela Carnevale ◽  
...  

Hypertension is one of the main risk factors for vascular dementia and Alzheimer disease. To predict the onset of these diseases, it is necessary to develop tools to detect the early effects of vascular risk factors on the brain. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging can investigate how the brain modulates its resting activity and analyze how hypertension impacts cerebral function. Here, we used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore brain functional-hemodynamic coupling across different regions and their connectivity in patients with hypertension, as compared to subjects with normotension. In addition, we leveraged multimodal imaging to identify the signature of hypertension injury on the brain. Our study included 37 subjects (18 normotensives and 19 hypertensives), characterized by microstructural integrity by diffusion tensor imaging and cognitive profile, who were subjected to resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis. We mapped brain functional connectivity networks and evaluated the connectivity differences among regions, identifying the altered connections in patients with hypertension compared with subjects with normotension in the (1) dorsal attention network and sensorimotor network; (2) dorsal attention network and visual network; (3) dorsal attention network and frontoparietal network. Then we tested how diffusion tensor imaging fractional anisotropy of superior longitudinal fasciculus correlates with the connections between dorsal attention network and default mode network and Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores with a widespread network of functional connections. Finally, based on our correlation analysis, we applied a feature selection to highlight those most relevant to describing brain injury in patients with hypertension. Our multimodal imaging data showed that hypertensive brains present a network of functional connectivity alterations that correlate with cognitive dysfunction and microstructural integrity. Registration— URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov ; Unique identifier: NCT02310217.


Author(s):  
Annika Lind ◽  
Leena Haataja ◽  
Marja Laasonen ◽  
Virva Saunavaara ◽  
Henry Railo ◽  
...  

Abstract 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.


1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 538-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean C. Huckins ◽  
Christopher W. Turner ◽  
Karen A. Doherty ◽  
Michael M. Fonte ◽  
Nikolaus M. Szeverenyi

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) holds exciting potential as a research and clinical tool for exploring the human auditory system. This noninvasive technique allows the measurement of discrete changes in cerebral cortical blood flow in response to sensory stimuli, allowing determination of precise neuroanatomical locations of the underlying brain parenchymal activity. Application of fMRI in auditory research, however, has been limited. One problem is that fMRI utilizing echo-planar imaging technology (EPI) generates intense noise that could potentially affect the results of auditory experiments. Also, issues relating to the reliability of fMRI for listeners with normal hearing need to be resolved before this technique can be used to study listeners with hearing loss. This preliminary study examines the feasibility of using fMRI in auditory research by performing a simple set of experiments to test the reliability of scanning parameters that use a high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio unlike that presently reported in the literature. We used consonant-vowel (CV) speech stimuli to investigate whether or not we could observe reproducible and consistent changes in cortical blood flow in listeners during a single scanning session, across more than one scanning session, and in more than one listener. In addition, we wanted to determine if there were differences between CV speech and nonspeech complex stimuli across listeners. Our study shows reproducibility within and across listeners for CV speech stimuli. Results were reproducible for CV speech stimuli within fMRI scanning sessions for 5 out of 9 listeners and were reproducible for 6 out of 8 listeners across fMRI scanning sessions. Results of nonspeech complex stimuli across listeners showed activity in 4 out of 9 individuals tested.


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