scholarly journals Evolutionary expansion of connectivity between multimodal association areas in the human brain compared with chimpanzees

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (14) ◽  
pp. 7101-7106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Jan Ardesch ◽  
Lianne H. Scholtens ◽  
Longchuan Li ◽  
Todd M. Preuss ◽  
James K. Rilling ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Global Network ◽  
Diffusion Weighted Mri ◽  
Neural Integration ◽  
White Matter Connectivity ◽  
Supporting Functional ◽  
Processing Network

The development of complex cognitive functions during human evolution coincides with pronounced encephalization and expansion of white matter, the brain’s infrastructure for region-to-region communication. We investigated adaptations of the human macroscale brain network by comparing human brain wiring with that of the chimpanzee, one of our closest living primate relatives. White matter connectivity networks were reconstructed using diffusion-weighted MRI in humans (n= 57) and chimpanzees (n= 20) and then analyzed using network neuroscience tools. We demonstrate higher network centrality of connections linking multimodal association areas in humans compared with chimpanzees, together with a more pronounced modular topology of the human connectome. Furthermore, connections observed in humans but not in chimpanzees particularly link multimodal areas of the temporal, lateral parietal, and inferior frontal cortices, including tracts important for language processing. Network analysis demonstrates a particularly high contribution of these connections to global network integration in the human brain. Taken together, our comparative connectome findings suggest an evolutionary shift in the human brain toward investment of neural resources in multimodal connectivity facilitating neural integration, combined with an increase in language-related connectivity supporting functional specialization.

scholarly journals Altered structural brain network resulting from white matter injury in obstructive sleep apnea

SLEEP ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Min-Hee Lee ◽  
Chang-Ho Yun ◽  
Areum Min ◽  
Yoon Ho Hwang ◽  
Seung Ku Lee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Obstructive Sleep Apnea ◽  
Sleep Apnea ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Tissue Injury ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Global Network ◽  
P Value ◽  
Obstructive Sleep ◽  
Network Properties ◽  
Structural Brain

Abstract Study Objectives To assess, using fractional anisotropy (FA) analysis, alterations of brain network connectivity in adults with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Abnormal networks could mediate clinical functional deficits and reflect brain tissue injury. Methods Structural brain networks were constructed using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) from 165 healthy (age 57.99 ± 6.02 years, male 27.9%) and 135 OSA participants (age 59.01 ± 5.91 years, male 28.9%) and global network properties (strength, global efficiency, and local efficiency) and regional efficiency were compared between groups. We examined MRI biomarkers of brain tissue injury using FA analysis and its effect on the network properties. Results Differences between groups of interest were noted in global network properties (p-value < 0.05, corrected), and regional efficiency (p-value < 0.05, corrected) in the left middle cingulate and paracingulate gyri, right posterior cingulate gyrus, and amygdala. In FA analysis, OSA participants showed lower FA values in white matter (WM) of the right transverse temporal, anterior cingulate and paracingulate gyri, and left postcentral, middle frontal and medial frontal gyri, and the putamen. After culling fiber tracts through WM which showed significant differences in FA, we observed no group difference in network properties. Conclusions Changes in WM integrity and structural connectivity are present in OSA participants. We found that the integrity of WM affected brain network properties. Brain network analysis may improve understanding of neurocognitive deficits in OSA, enable longitudinal tracking, and provides explanations for specific symptoms and recovery kinetics.

scholarly journals Evidence for wakefulness-related changes to extracellular space in human brain white matter from diffusion-weighted MRI

NeuroImage ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 212 ◽  
pp. 116682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Voldsbekk ◽  
Ivan I. Maximov ◽  
Nathalia Zak ◽  
Daniël Roelfs ◽  
Oliver Geier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Extracellular Space ◽  
Diffusion Weighted Mri ◽  
Brain White Matter ◽  
Diffusion Weighted

scholarly journals White Matter Brain Network Research in Alzheimer’s Disease Using Persistent Features

Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (11) ◽  
pp. 2472
Author(s):  
Liqun Kuang ◽  
Yan Gao ◽  
Zhongyu Chen ◽  
Jiacheng Xing ◽  
Fengguang Xiong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Diffusion Tensor ◽  
Persistent Homology ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Global Network ◽  
Network Research ◽  
Structural Brain

Despite the severe social burden caused by Alzheimer’s disease (AD), no drug than can change the disease progression has been identified yet. The structural brain network research provides an opportunity to understand physiological deterioration caused by AD and its precursor, mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Recently, persistent homology has been used to study brain network dynamics and characterize the global network organization. However, it is unclear how these parameters reflect changes in structural brain networks of patients with AD or MCI. In this study, our previously proposed persistent features and various traditional graph-theoretical measures are used to quantify the topological property of white matter (WM) network in 150 subjects with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). We found significant differences in these measures among AD, MCI, and normal controls (NC) under different brain parcellation schemes. The decreased network integration and increased network segregation are presented in AD and MCI. Moreover, the persistent homology-based measures demonstrated stronger statistical capability and robustness than traditional graph-theoretic measures, suggesting that they represent a more sensitive approach to detect altered brain structures and to better understand AD symptomology at the network level. These findings contribute to an increased understanding of structural connectome in AD and provide a novel approach to potentially track the progression of AD.

scholarly journals White-Matter Connectivity between Face-Responsive Regions in the Human Brain

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 1564-1576 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Gschwind ◽  
G. Pourtois ◽  
S. Schwartz ◽  
D. Van De Ville ◽  
P. Vuilleumier
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
White Matter Connectivity

scholarly journals Multifactorial Dynamics of White Matter Connectivity During Adolescence

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birkan Tunç ◽  
Drew Parker ◽  
Russell T. Shinohara ◽  
Mark A. Elliott ◽  
Kosha Ruparel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Expression Profiles ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Diffusion Imaging ◽  
Structural Connectivity ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Imaging Data ◽  
Behavioral Repertoire ◽  
White Matter Connectivity

AbstractStudying developmental changes in white matter connectivity is critical for understanding neurobiological substrates of cognition, learning, and neuropsychiatric disorders. This becomes especially important during adolescence when a rapid expansion of the behavioral repertoire occurs. Several factors such as brain geometry, genetic expression profiles, and higher level architectural specifications such as the presence of segregated modules have been associated with the observed organization of white matter connections. However, we lack understanding of the extent to which such factors jointly describe the brain network organization, nor have insights into how their contribution changes developmentally. We constructed a multifactorial model of white matter connectivity using Bayesian network analysis and tested it with diffusion imaging data from a large community sample. We investigated contributions of multiple factors in explaining observed connectivity, including architectural specifications, which promote a modular yet integrative organization, and brain’s geometric and genetic features. Our results demonstrated that the initially dominant geometric and genetic factors become less influential with age, whereas the effect of architectural specifications increases. The identified structural modules are associated with well-known functional systems, and the level of association increases with age. This integrative analysis provides a computational characterization of the normative evolution of structural connectivity during adolescence.

scholarly journals Shared vulnerability for connectome alterations across psychiatric and neurological brain disorders

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siemon C. de Lange ◽  
Lianne H. Scholtens ◽  
Leonard H. van den Berg ◽  
Marco P. Boks ◽  
Marco Bozzali ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Normal Function ◽  
Global Network ◽  
Brain Disorders ◽  
Network Integration ◽  
Wide Range

AbstractMacroscale white matter pathways form the infrastructure for large-scale communication in the human brain, a prerequisite for healthy brain function. Conversely, disruptions in the brain’s connectivity architecture are thought to play an important role in a wide range of psychiatric and neurological brain disorders. Here we show that especially connections important for global communication and network integration are involved in a wide range of brain disorders. We report on a meta-analytic connectome study comprising in total 895 patients and 1,016 controls across twelve neurological and psychiatric disorders. We extracted disorder connectome fingerprints for each of these twelve disorders, which were then combined into a cross-disorder disconnectivity involvement map, representing the involvement of each brain pathway across brain disorders. Our findings show connections central to the brain’s infrastructure are disproportionally involved across a wide range of disorders. Connections critical for global network communication and integration display high disturbance across disorders, suggesting a general cross-disorder involvement and importance of these pathways in normal function. Taken together, our cross-disorder study suggests a convergence of disconnectivity across disorders to a partially shared disconnectivity substrate of central connections.

scholarly journals Motor Function and White Matter Connectivity in Children Treated with Therapeutic Hypothermia for Neonatal Encephalopathy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur P C Spencer ◽  
Jonathan C W Brooks ◽  
Naoki Masuda ◽  
Hollie Byrne ◽  
Richard Lee-Kelland ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cerebral Palsy ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Therapeutic Hypothermia ◽  
Fractional Anisotropy ◽  
Motor Function ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Motor Deficits ◽  
School Age ◽  
White Matter Connectivity

Therapeutic hypothermia reduces the incidence of severe motor disability, such as cerebral palsy, following neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. However, cooled children without cerebral palsy at school-age demonstrate motor deficits and altered white matter connectivity. In this study, we used diffusion-weighted imaging to investigate the relationship between white matter connectivity and motor performance, measured using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2, in school-age children treated with therapeutic hypothermia for neonatal hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy at birth, who did not develop cerebral palsy (cases), and matched controls. Analysis of tract-level microstructure (33 cases, 36 controls) revealed correlations between total motor scores and fractional anisotropy, in cases but not controls, in the anterior thalamic radiation bilaterally, the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus bilaterally and both the hippocampal and cingulate gyrus parts of the left cingulum. Analysis of structural brain networks (22 cases, 32 controls), in which edges were determined by probabilistic tractography and weighted by fractional anisotropy, revealed correlations between total motor scores and several whole-brain network metrics in cases but not controls. We then investigated edge-level association with motor function using the network-based statistic. This revealed subnetworks which exhibited group differences in the association between motor outcome and edge weights, for total motor scores as well as for balance and manual dexterity domain scores. All three of these subnetworks comprised numerous frontal lobe regions known to be associated with motor function, including the superior frontal gyrus and middle frontal gyrus. These findings demonstrate an association between impaired motor function and brain organisation in case children.

Language processing is not a race against time

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giosuè Baggio ◽  
Carmelo M. Vicario
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Language System ◽  
Moderating Factors

AbstractWe agree with Christiansen & Chater (C&C) that language processing and acquisition are tightly constrained by the limits of sensory and memory systems. However, the human brain supports a range of cognitive functions that mitigate the effects of information processing bottlenecks. The language system is partly organised around these moderating factors, not just around restrictions on storage and computation.

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