scholarly journals Accumbofrontal tract integrity is related to early life adversity and feedback learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan V. Kennedy ◽  
Jamie L. Hanson ◽  
Nicholas J. Buser ◽  
Wouter van den Bos ◽  
Karen D. Rudolph ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Structural Connectivity ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Reward Learning ◽  
Behavioral Alterations ◽  
White Matter Tracts ◽  
Early Life Adversity ◽  
Feedback Learning ◽  
Corticostriatal Circuit

AbstractAbuse, neglect, exposure to violence, and other forms of early life adversity (ELA) are incredibly common and significantly impact physical and mental development. While important progress has been made in understanding the impacts of ELA on behavior and the brain, the preponderance of past work has primarily centered on threat processing and vigilance while ignoring other potentially critical neurobehavioral processes, such as reward-responsiveness and learning. To advance our understanding of potential mechanisms linking ELA and poor mental health, we center in on structural connectivity of the corticostriatal circuit, specifically accumbofrontal white matter tracts. Here, in a sample of 77 youth (Mean age = 181 months), we leveraged rigorous measures of ELA, strong diffusion neuroimaging methodology, and computational modeling of reward learning. Linking these different forms of data, we hypothesized that higher ELA would be related to lower quantitative anisotropy in accumbofrontal white matter. Furthermore, we predicted that lower accumbofrontal quantitative anisotropy would be related to differences in reward learning. Our primary predictions were confirmed, but similar patterns were not seen in control white matter tracts outside of the corticostriatal circuit. Examined collectively, our work is one of the first projects to connect ELA to neural and behavioral alterations in reward-learning, a critical potential mechanism linking adversity to later developmental challenges. This could potentially provide windows of opportunity to address the effects of ELA through interventions and preventative programming.

scholarly journals Corticostriatal White Matter Integrity and Dopamine D1 Receptor Availability Predict Age Differences in Prefrontal Value Signaling during Reward Learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (10) ◽  
pp. 5270-5280
Author(s):  
Lieke de Boer ◽  
Benjamín Garzón ◽  
Jan Axelsson ◽  
Katrine Riklund ◽  
Lars Nyberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
D1 Receptor ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Reward Learning ◽  
White Matter Integrity ◽  
Tentative Evidence ◽  
Independent Replication ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Corticostriatal Circuit

Abstract Probabilistic reward learning reflects the ability to adapt choices based on probabilistic feedback. The dopaminergically innervated corticostriatal circuit in the brain plays an important role in supporting successful probabilistic reward learning. Several components of the corticostriatal circuit deteriorate with age, as it does probabilistic reward learning. We showed previously that D1 receptor availability in NAcc predicts the strength of anticipatory value signaling in vmPFC, a neural correlate of probabilistic learning that is attenuated in older participants and predicts probabilistic reward learning performance. We investigated how white matter integrity in the pathway between nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) relates to the strength of anticipatory value signaling in vmPFC in younger and older participants. We found that in a sample of 22 old and 23 young participants, fractional anisotropy in the pathway between NAcc and vmPFC predicted the strength of value signaling in vmPFC independently from D1 receptor availability in NAcc. These findings provide tentative evidence that integrity in the dopaminergic and white matter pathways of corticostriatal circuitry supports the expression of value signaling in vmPFC which supports reward learning, however, the limited sample size calls for independent replication. These and future findings could add to the improved understanding of how corticostriatal integrity contributes to reward learning ability.

scholarly journals Prenatal Exposure to Early Life Adversity and Neonatal Brain Volumes at Birth

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina L Triplett ◽  
Rachel E Lean ◽  
Amisha Parikh ◽  
J Philip Miller ◽  
Dimitrios Alexopoulos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Prenatal Exposure ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Psychosocial Stress ◽  
Social Disadvantage ◽  
Cortical Folding ◽  
Neonatal Brain ◽  
Early Life Adversity ◽  
Brain Volumes

Importance: Exposure to early life adversity alters the structural development of key brain regions underlying neurodevelopmental impairments. The extent that prenatal exposure to life adversity alters structure at birth remains poorly understood. Objective: To determine if prenatal exposure to maternal social advantage and psychosocial distress alters global and regional brain volumes and cortical folding in the first weeks of life. Design: A prospective, longitudinal study of sociodemographically-diverse mothers recruited in the first trimester of pregnancy and their infants who underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging scan in the first weeks of life. Setting: Mothers were recruited from local obstetric clinics from 2017-2020. Participants: Of 399 mother-infant dyads prospectively recruited into the parent study, 280 healthy, term-born infants (47% female, mean postmenstrual age at scan 42 weeks) were eligible for inclusion. Exposures: Maternal social advantage and psychosocial distress in pregnancy. Main Measures and Outcomes: Two measures of latent constructs were created using Confirmatory Factor Analyses spanning Maternal Social Advantage (Income to Needs ratio, Area Deprivation Index, Healthy Eating Index, education level, insurance status) and Psychosocial Stress (Perceived Stress Scale, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, Everyday Discrimination Scale, Stress and Adversity Inventory). Neonatal cortical and subcortical gray matter, white matter, cerebellar, hippocampus, and amygdala volumes were generated using semi-automated age-specific segmentation pipelines. Results: After covariate adjustment and multiple comparisons correction, greater social disadvantage (i.e., lower Advantage values) was associated with reduced cortical gray matter (p=.03), subcortical gray matter (p=.008), and white matter (p=.004) volumes and cortical folding (p=.001). Psychosocial Stress was not related to neonatal brain metrics. While social disadvantage was associated with smaller absolute volumes of the bilateral hippocampi and amygdalae, after correcting for total brain volume, there were no regional effects. Conclusions and Relevance: Prenatal exposure to social disadvantage is associated with global reductions in brain volumes and cortical folding at birth. No regional specificity for the hippocampus or amygdala was detected. Results highlight that the deleterious effects of poverty begin in utero and are evident in the first weeks of life. These findings emphasize that preventative interventions to support fetal brain development should address socioeconomic hardships for expectant parents.

109. From Early Life Adversity to Adolescence Depression: White Matter Remodelling in a Translational Animal Model

2017 ◽  
Vol 81 (10) ◽  
pp. S46
Author(s):  
Severine Farley ◽  
Julien Grenier ◽  
Victor Gorgievski ◽  
Alexandre Barbe ◽  
Wojciech Jaworski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Model ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Adversity

It doesn’t end there: Mental health difficulties across ages 3-14 mediate the long-term association between early-life adversity and poorer cognitive functioning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tochukwu Nweze ◽  
Amy Orben ◽  
Anne-Laura Van Harmelen ◽  
Delia Fuhrmann ◽  
Rogier Kievit
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Adverse Childhood Experiences ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Cognitive Outcomes ◽  
Early Life Adversity ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Adverse Childhood

SummaryBackground: Early-life adversity is associated with adverse mental health outcomes and poorer cognitive functioning in later development. However, little is known about how early-life adversity, mental health and cognition affect one another or how the effects unfold over time. In a unique longitudinal sample, we use a path model approach to study whether poorer mental health in childhood may mediate the effects of early-life adversity on later cognitive outcomes.Methods: We used 5-wave longitudinal data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a British population study that prospectively sampled children born between September 1, 2000 and January 11, 2002. We used data collected when the children were aged 3, 5, 7, 11 and 14. Information on exposure to adverse childhood experiences and mental health were provided by parents, while the children completed two cognitive tasks and additional mental health questionnaires at ages 11 and 14. A global adversity score was extracted from multiple adverse childhood experiences collected in the study using Principal Component Analysis. Total errors in a working memory task and total correct number of words in a vocabulary task were the principal cognitive outcomes. Total scores on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire were modeled as mediators.Findings: The sample consisted of 13,287 children (Male = 6,712, Female = 6,575) who completed the working memory task at age 11 and 11,726 children (Male = 5,884, Female = 5,842) who completed a vocabulary task at age 14. We found a significant total association between global adversity and poorer performance on working memory (β = 0.116, p < 0.001 [95%CI 0.098, 0.134]) and vocabulary scores (β = -0.112, p < 0.001, [95% CI-0.130, -0.094]) tasks. Notably, current and previous mental health mediated a substantial proportion (working memory: 59%; vocabulary: ¬65%), of these effects. Our analysis showed that adversity has an enduring adverse effect on mental health, and that poorer mental health is associated with poorer cognitive performance later on in development. Moreover, the adverse effects of mental health were cumulative: poor mental health early on is associated with poorer cognitive scores up to 11 years later, above and beyond contemporaneous mental health.Interpretations: Children who experience early-life adversity are more likely to suffer from poorer mental health, which in turn is associated with poorer cognitive performance in adolescence. Our findings highlight at least one potential mechanism through which early-life adversity leads to poorer cognitive outcomes: Prolonged periods of poor mental health may have lasting, partially cumulative effects on working memory and vocabulary. These findings have important potential clinical and educational implications, because they suggest that academic and cognitive resilience may be supported through early mental health interventions in vulnerable children. Funding: TN is supported by the Cambridge Trust (University of Cambridge). ALVH is supported by Royal Society, and the Social Safety and Resilience programme at Leiden University. RAK was supported by Rogier A. Kievit, Medical Research Council (http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000265), Award ID: SUAG/047 G101400 and a Hypatia Fellowship (Radboud University).

scholarly journals Structural Connectivity Remote From Lesions Correlates With Somatosensory Outcome Poststroke

Stroke ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chia-Lin Koh ◽  
Chun-Hung Yeh ◽  
Xiaoyun Liang ◽  
Rishma Vidyasagar ◽  
Rüdiger J. Seitz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Fiber Bundle ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Structural Connectivity ◽  
Healthy Adults ◽  
Lesion Group ◽  
Fiber Density ◽  
White Matter Tracts ◽  
Stroke Lesion

Background and Purpose: Changes in connectivity of white matter fibers remote to a stroke lesion, suggestive of structural connectional diaschisis, may impact on clinical impairment and recovery after stroke. However, until recently, we have not had tract-specific techniques to map changes in white matter tracts in vivo in humans to enable investigation of potential mechanisms and clinical impact of such remote changes. Our aim was to identify and quantify white matter tracts that are affected remote from a stroke lesion and to investigate the associations between reductions in tract-specific connectivity and impaired touch discrimination function after stroke. Methods: We applied fixel-based analysis to diffusion magnetic resonance imaging data from 37 patients with stroke (right lesion =16; left lesion =21) and 26 age-matched healthy adults. Three quantitative metrics were compared between groups: fiber density; fiber-bundle cross-section; and a combined measure of both (fiber-bundle cross-section) that reflects axonal structural connectivity. Results: Compared with healthy adults, patients with stroke showed significant common fiber-bundle cross-section and fiber density reductions in 4 regions remote from focal lesions that play roles in somatosensory and spatial information processing. Structural connectivity along the somatosensory fibers of the lesioned hemisphere was correlated with contralesional hand touch function. Touch function of the ipsilesional hand was associated with connectivity of the superior longitudinal fasciculus, and, for the right-lesion group, the corpus callosum. Conclusions: Remote tract-specific reductions in axonal connectivity indicated by diffusion imaging measures are observed in the somatosensory network after stroke. These remote white matter connectivity reductions, indicative of structural connectional diaschisis, are associated with touch impairment in patients with stroke.

scholarly journals Dorsal-to-ventral imbalance in the superior longitudinal fasciculus mediates methylphenidate’s effect on beta oscillations in ADHD

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Mazzetti ◽  
C. G. Damatac ◽  
E. Sprooten ◽  
N. ter Huurne ◽  
J.K. Buitelaar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Diffusion Tensor ◽  
Structural Connectivity ◽  
Superior Longitudinal Fasciculus ◽  
Beta Oscillations ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
White Matter Tracts ◽  
Fiber Tracts ◽  
Beta Power

AbstractBackgroundWhile pharmacological treatment with Methylphenidate (MPH) is a first line intervention for ADHD, its mechanisms of action have yet to be elucidated. In a previous MEG study, we demonstrated that MPH in ADHD normalizes beta depression in preparation to motor responses (1). We here seek to identify the white matter tracts that mediate MPH’s effect on beta oscillations.MethodsWe implemented a double-blind placebo-controlled crossover design, where boys diagnosed with ADHD underwent behavioral and MEG measurements during a spatial attention task while on and off MPH. Results were compared with an age/IQ-matched typically developing (TD) group performing the same task. Estimates of white matter tracts were obtained through diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Based on aprioristic selection model criteria, we sought to determine the fiber tracts associated with electrophysiological, behavioral and clinical features of attentional functions.ResultsWe identified three main tracts: the anterior thalamic radiation (ATR), the Superior Longitudinal Fasciculus (‘parietal endings’) (SLFp) and Superior Longitudinal Fasciculus (‘temporal endings’) (SLFt). ADHD symptoms severity was associated with lower fractional anisotropy (FA) within the ATR. In addition, individuals with relatively higher FA in SLFp compared to SLFt showed faster and more accurate behavioral responses to MPH. Furthermore, the same parieto-temporal FA gradient explained the effects of MPH on beta modulation: subjects with ADHD exhibiting higher FA in SLFp compared to SLFt also displayed greater effects of MPH on beta power during response preparation.ConclusionsBased on MPH’s modulatory effects on striatal dopamine levels, our data suggest that the behavioral deficits and aberrant oscillatory modulations observed in ADHD depend on a structural connectivity imbalance within the SLF, caused by a diffusivity gradient in favor of temporal rather than parietal, fiber tracts.

scholarly journals Early life adversity and borderline intellectual functioning negatively impact limbic system connectivity in childhood: a connectomics-based study

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Blasi ◽  
Alice Pirastru ◽  
Monia Cabinio ◽  
Sonia Di Tella ◽  
Maria Marcella Laganà ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Linear Regression ◽  
Limbic System ◽  
Information Integration ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Structural Connectivity ◽  
Intellectual Functioning ◽  
Early Life Adversity ◽  
Borderline Intellectual Functioning ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Topological Organization

AbstractEpigenetic factors related to early life adversity (ELA) in childhood are major risk factors for borderline intellectual functioning (BIF). BIF affects both adaptive and intellectual abilities, commonly leading to school failure and to an increased risk to develop mental and social problems in the adulthood. This study aimed to investigate the neurobiological underpinnings of ELA associated with BIF in terms of global topological organization and structural connectivity and their relation with intellectual functioning.BIF (N=32) and age-matched typical development (TD, N=14) children were evaluated for intelligence quotient (IQ), behavioral competencies, and ELA. Children underwent an anatomical and diffusion-weighted MR imaging (DWI) protocol. Global brain topological organization was assessed measuring segregation and integration indexes. Moreover, structural matrices, measuring normalized number of fibers (NFn), were compared between the 2 groups using network-based statistics. Finally, a linear regression model was used to explore the relationship between network parameters and clinical measures.Results showed increased behavioral difficulties and ELA, together with decreased network integration in BIF children. Moreover, significantly lower NFn was observed in the BIF group (p=.039) in a sub-network comprising anterior and posterior cingulate, the pericallosal sulcus, the orbital frontal areas, amygdala, basal ganglia, the accumbens nucleus, and the hippocampus. Linear regression showed that NFn significantly predicted IQ (p<.0001).This study demonstrated that ELA in children with BIF is associated with a decreased information integration at the global level, and with an altered structural connectivity within the limbic system strictly related to the intellectual functioning.

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