Environmental Influences on Infant Cortical Thickness and Surface Area

Background: The motoric cognitive risk (MCR) syndrome is a pre-clinical stage of dementia characterized by slow gait and cognitive complaint. Yet, the brain substrates of MCR are not well established. Objective: To examine cortical thickness, volume, and surface area associated with MCR in the MCR-Neuroimaging Consortium, which harmonizes image processing/analysis of multiple cohorts. Methods: Two-hundred MRIs (M age 72.62 years; 47.74%female; 33.17%MCR) from four different cohorts (50 each) were first processed with FreeSurfer 6.0, and then analyzed using multivariate and univariate general linear models with 1,000 bootstrapped samples (n-1; with resampling). All models adjusted for age, sex, education, white matter lesions, total intracranial volume, and study site. Results: Overall, cortical thickness was lower in individuals with MCR than in those without MCR. There was a trend in the same direction for cortical volume (p = 0.051). Regional cortical thickness was also lower among individuals with MCR than individuals without MCR in prefrontal, insular, temporal, and parietal regions. Conclusion: Cortical atrophy in MCR is pervasive, and include regions previously associated with human locomotion, but also social, cognitive, affective, and motor functions. Cortical atrophy in MCR is easier to detect in cortical thickness than volume and surface area because thickness is more affected by healthy and pathological aging.

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Variability of the paracingulate sulcus and morphometry of the medial frontal cortex: Associations with cortical thickness, surface area, volume, and sulcal depth

Human Brain Mapping ◽

10.1002/hbm.20381 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 222-236 ◽

Cited By ~ 71

Author(s):

Alex Fornito ◽

Stephen J. Wood ◽

Sarah Whittle ◽

Jack Fuller ◽

Chris Adamson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Frontal Cortex ◽

Surface Area ◽

Cortical Thickness ◽

Medial Frontal Cortex ◽

Sulcal Depth

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Cortical thickness and surface area correlates with cognitive dysfunction among first-episode psychosis patients

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291716000684 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 46 (10) ◽

pp. 2145-2155 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

L. Haring ◽

A. Müürsepp ◽

R. Mõttus ◽

P. Ilves ◽

K. Koch ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Structure Function ◽

Surface Area ◽

Cortical Thickness ◽

Brain Structure ◽

Brain Mri ◽

Brain Regions ◽

First Episode Psychosis ◽

First Episode ◽

Neurocognitive Performance ◽

Episode Psychosis

BackgroundIn studies using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), some have reported specific brain structure–function relationships among first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients, but findings are inconsistent. We aimed to localize the brain regions where cortical thickness (CTh) and surface area (cortical area; CA) relate to neurocognition, by performing an MRI on participants and measuring their neurocognitive performance using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB), in order to investigate any significant differences between FEP patients and control subjects (CS).MethodExploration of potential correlations between specific cognitive functions and brain structure was performed using CANTAB computer-based neurocognitive testing and a vertex-by-vertex whole-brain MRI analysis of 63 FEP patients and 30 CS.ResultsSignificant correlations were found between cortical parameters in the frontal, temporal, cingular and occipital brain regions and performance in set-shifting, working memory manipulation, strategy usage and sustained attention tests. These correlations were significantly dissimilar between FEP patients and CS.ConclusionsSignificant correlations between CTh and CA with neurocognitive performance were localized in brain areas known to be involved in cognition. The results also suggested a disrupted structure–function relationship in FEP patients compared with CS.

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Brain development during adolescence: A mixed-longitudinal investigation of cortical thickness, surface area, and volume

Human Brain Mapping ◽

10.1002/hbm.23154 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 37 (6) ◽

pp. 2027-2038 ◽

Cited By ~ 109

Author(s):

Nandita Vijayakumar ◽

Nicholas B. Allen ◽

George Youssef ◽

Meg Dennison ◽

Murat Yücel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Brain Development ◽

Surface Area ◽

Cortical Thickness ◽

Longitudinal Investigation ◽

Area And Volume

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Reduced cortical thickness and increased surface area in antisocial personality disorder

Neuroscience ◽

10.1016/j.neuroscience.2016.08.052 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 337 ◽

pp. 143-152 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Weixiong Jiang ◽

Gang Li ◽

Huasheng Liu ◽

Feng Shi ◽

Tao Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Personality Disorder ◽

Surface Area ◽

Cortical Thickness ◽

Antisocial Personality Disorder ◽

Antisocial Personality

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Cortical thickness and surface area as an endophenotype in bipolar disorder type I patients and their first-degree relatives

NeuroImage Clinical ◽

10.1016/j.nicl.2019.101695 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 22 ◽

pp. 101695

Author(s):

Nefize Yalin ◽

Aybala Saricicek ◽

Ceren Hidiroglu ◽

Andre Zugman ◽

Nese Direk ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Surface Area ◽

Cortical Thickness ◽

Type I ◽

First Degree Relatives ◽

Disorder Type

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Quantifying the Polygenic Architecture of the Human Cerebral Cortex: Extensive Genetic Overlap between Cortical Thickness and Surface Area

Cerebral Cortex ◽

10.1093/cercor/bhaa146 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (10) ◽

pp. 5597-5603 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Dennis van der Meer ◽

Oleksandr Frei ◽

Tobias Kaufmann ◽

Chi-Hua Chen ◽

Wesley K Thompson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Surface Area ◽

Cortical Thickness ◽

Large Scale ◽

Gaussian Mixture ◽

Total Surface Area ◽

Brain Morphology ◽

Genetic Determinants ◽

Genetic Predictors ◽

Genetic Overlap ◽

Causal Variants

Abstract The thickness of the cerebral cortical sheet and its surface area are highly heritable traits thought to have largely distinct polygenic architectures. Despite large-scale efforts, the majority of their genetic determinants remain unknown. Our ability to identify causal genetic variants can be improved by employing brain measures that better map onto the biology we seek to understand. Such measures may have fewer variants but with larger effects, that is, lower polygenicity and higher discoverability. Using Gaussian mixture modeling, we estimated the number of causal variants shared between mean cortical thickness and total surface area, as well as the polygenicity and discoverability of regional measures. We made use of UK Biobank data from 30 880 healthy White European individuals (mean age 64.3, standard deviation 7.5, 52.1% female). We found large genetic overlap between total surface area and mean thickness, sharing 4016 out of 7941 causal variants. Regional surface area was more discoverable (P = 2.6 × 10−6) and less polygenic (P = 0.004) than regional thickness measures. These findings may serve as a roadmap for improved future GWAS studies; knowledge of which measures are most discoverable may be used to boost identification of genetic predictors and thereby gain a better understanding of brain morphology.

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Beyond the average brain: individual differences in social brain development are associated with friendship quality

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience ◽

10.1093/scan/nsaa166 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Andrik I Becht ◽

Lara M Wierenga ◽

Kathryn L Mills ◽

Rosa Meuwese ◽

Anna van Duijvenvoorde ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Brain Development ◽

Surface Area ◽

Cortical Thickness ◽

Friendship Quality ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Structural Development ◽

Quality Development ◽

Social Brain ◽

Temporoparietal Junction

Abstract We tested whether adolescents differ from each other in the structural development of the social brain and whether individual differences in social brain development predicted variability in friendship quality development. Adolescents (N = 299, Mage T1 = 13.98 years) were followed across three biannual waves. We analysed self-reported friendship quality with the best friend at T1 and T3, and bilateral measures of surface area and cortical thickness of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and precuneus across all waves. At the group level, growth curve models confirmed non-linear decreases of surface area and cortical thickness in social brain regions. We identified substantial individual differences in levels and change rates of social brain regions, especially for surface area of the mPFC, pSTS and TPJ. Change rates of cortical thickness varied less between persons. Higher levels of mPFC surface area and cortical thickness predicted stronger increases in friendship quality over time. Moreover, faster cortical thinning of mPFC surface area predicted a stronger increase in friendship quality. Higher levels of TPJ cortical thickness predicted lower friendship quality. Together, our results indicate heterogeneity in social brain development and how this variability uniquely predicts friendship quality development.

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