Relationship Between White Matter Abnormalities and Neuropsychological Measures in Children With ADHD

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (7) ◽  
pp. 1020-1031
Author(s):  
Ariadna Albajara Sáenz ◽  
Thomas Villemonteix ◽  
Hichem Slama ◽  
Simon Baijot ◽  
Alison Mary ◽  
...  

Objective: Using Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), to investigate microstructural white matter differences between ADHD and typically developing children (TDC), and their association with inhibition and working memory performance usually impaired in ADHD. Method: Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) were estimated in 36 noncomorbid children with a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.; DSM-IV-TR) diagnosis of combined type ADHD and 20 TDC. Correlations between FA/MD and Stop Signal Task and N-Back performance parameters were computed. Results: Working memory performance was significantly associated with MD in the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) and the cingulum in the ADHD group. No between-group differences in FA/MD reached significance, after controlling for between-group head motion differences. Conclusion: The association between white matter integrity in the cingulum and the SLF and working memory performance confirms previous studies. Our results also show that when critical conditions are controlled (age, comorbidity, head motion), no ADHD-related structural abnormality (FA/MD) are observed, in line with prior suggestions.

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan M Kangiser ◽  
Alicia M Thomas ◽  
Christine M Kaiver ◽  
Krista M Lisdahl

Abstract Objective Nicotine use is widely prevalent among youth, and is associated with white matter microstructural changes as measured by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). In adults, nicotine use is generally associated with lower fractional anisotropy (FA), but in adolescents/young adults (≤30 years), microstructure appears healthier, indicated by higher FA. This cross-sectional study examined associations between nicotine use and white matter microstructure using fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD) in young adults. Methods Fifty-three participants (18 nicotine users [10 female]/35 controls [17 female]) ages 18–25 underwent MRI scan, neuropsychological battery, toxicology screening, and drug use interview. Nicotine group associations with FA and MD were examined in various white matter tracts. In significant tracts, AD and RD were measured. Exploratory correlations were conducted between significant tracts and verbal memory and sustained attention/working memory performance. Results Nicotine users exhibited significantly lower FA than controls in the left anterior thalamic radiation, left inferior longitudinal fasciculus, left superior longitudinal fasciculus—temporal, and left uncinate fasciculus. In these tracts, AD and RD did not differ, nor did MD differ in any tract. White matter quality was positively correlated with sustained attention/working memory performance. Conclusions Cigarette smoking may disrupt white matter microstructure. These results are consistent with adult studies, but inconsistent with adolescent/young adult studies, likely due to methodological and sample age differences. Further studies should examine longitudinal effects of nicotine use on white matter microstructure in a larger sample.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 2714-2721
Author(s):  
XIAOFENG YANG ◽  
◽  
WANMENG XIE ◽  

Our objective was to study the correlation between Diffusion tensor MR imaging (DTI) effect and white matter structural integrity, working memory in leukoaraiosis patients. 100 leukoaraiosis patients referring to the First Affiliated Hospital of Beijing Medical University from December 2018 to December 2019, were selected as study subjects and divided into four groups according to disease severity: lesion-free group, mild lesion group, moderate lesion group, and severe lesion group. All patients underwent magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging to collect DWI images and analyze Fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), ReHo values of white matter area under different grading. The patients’ working memory was tested via auditory verb learning test and Stroop color word test, so that correlation between white matter structural integrity and working memory can be analyzed. Results: There are statistically significant differences in FA values of the right posterior thalamic radiation, the right sagittal layer and the right superior longitudinal fasciculus, MD values of the right sagittal layer, the right cingulum bundle, the left cingulum bundle, the right inferior fasciculus fronto-occipitalis and the left inferior fasciculus frontooccipitalis, as well as instant recall, delayed recall, delayed recognition, card A (dot), card B (character), card C (color word) and SIE value (P<0.01). Correlation is shown between white matter structural integrity and working memory, gender, age, grading, disease course, recurrence interval, white matter area, and testing methods. There was a correlation between DTI effect and white matter structural integrity, working memory in leukoaraiosis patients, and leukoaraiosis patients have memory impairment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Dziemian ◽  
Sarah Appenzeller ◽  
Claudia C. von Bastian ◽  
Lutz Jäncke ◽  
Nicolas Langer

ObjectivesWorking memory is essential for daily life skills like reading comprehension, reasoning, and problem-solving. Healthy aging of the brain goes along with working memory decline that can affect older people’s independence in everyday life. Interventions in the form of cognitive training are a promising tool for delaying age-related working memory decline, yet the underlying structural plasticity of white matter is hardly studied.MethodsWe conducted a longitudinal diffusion tensor imaging study to investigate the effects of an intensive four-week adaptive working memory training on white matter integrity quantified by global and tract-wise mean diffusivity. We compared diffusivity measures of fiber tracts that are associated with working memory of 32 young and 20 older participants that were randomly assigned to a working memory training group or an active control group.ResultsThe behavioral analysis showed an increase in working memory performance after the four-week adaptive working memory training. The neuroanatomical analysis revealed a decrease in mean diffusivity in the working memory training group after the training intervention in the right inferior longitudinal fasciculus for the older adults. There was also a decrease in mean diffusivity in the working memory training group in the right superior longitudinal fasciculus for the older and young participants after the intervention.ConclusionThis study shows that older people can benefit from working memory training by improving their working memory performance that is also reflected in terms of improved white matter integrity in the superior longitudinal fasciculus and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus, where the first is an essential component of the frontoparietal network known to be essential in working memory.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Postans ◽  
GD Parker ◽  
H Lundell ◽  
M Ptito ◽  
K Hamandi ◽  
...  

AbstractThe dorsal hippocampal commissure (DHC) is a white matter tract that provides inter-hemispheric connections between temporal lobe brain regions. Despite the importance of these regions for learning and memory, there is scant evidence of a role for the DHC in successful memory performance. We used diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI) and white matter tractography to reconstruct the DHC across both humans (in vivo) and nonhuman primates (ex vivo). Across species, our findings demonstrate close consistency between the known anatomy and tract reconstructions of the DHC. Anterograde tract-tracer techniques also highlighted the parahippocampal origins of DHC fibers in nonhuman primates. Finally, we derived Diffusion Tensor MRI (DT-MRI) metrics from the DHC in a large sample of human subjects to investigate whether inter-individual variation in DHC microstructure is predictive of memory performance. The mean diffusivity of the DHC was correlated with performance in a standardised episodic memory task; an effect that was not reproduced in a comparison commissure tract – the anterior commissure. These findings highlight a role for the DHC in episodic memory, and our tract reconstruction approach has the potential to generate further novel insights into the role of this previously understudied white matter tract in both health and disease.


2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 567-576
Author(s):  
Fei Han ◽  
Fei-Fei Zhai ◽  
Ming-Li Li ◽  
Li-Xin Zhou ◽  
Jun Ni ◽  
...  

Background: Mechanisms through which arterial stiffness impacts cognitive function are crucial for devising better strategies to prevent cognitive decline. Objective: To examine the associations of arterial stiffness with white matter integrity and cognition in community dwellings, and to investigate whether white matter injury was the intermediate of the associations between arterial stiffness and cognition. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional analysis on 952 subjects (aged 55.5±9.1 years) who underwent diffusion tensor imaging and measurement of brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV). Both linear regression and tract-based spatial statistics were used to investigate the association between baPWV and white matter integrity. The association between baPWV and global cognitive function, measured as the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) was evaluated. Mediation analysis was performed to assess the influence of white matter integrity on the association of baPWV with MMSE. Results: Increased baPWV was significantly associated with lower mean global fractional anisotropy (β= –0.118, p < 0.001), higher mean diffusivity (β= 0.161, p < 0.001), axial diffusivity (β= 0.160, p < 0.001), and radial diffusivity (β= 0.147, p < 0.001) after adjustment of age, sex, and hypertension, which were measures having a direct effect on arterial stiffness and white matter integrity. After adjustment of age, sex, education, apolipoprotein E ɛ4, cardiovascular risk factors, and brain atrophy, we found an association of increased baPWV with worse performance on MMSE (β= –0.093, p = 0.011). White matter disruption partially mediated the effect of baPWV on MMSE. Conclusion: Arterial stiffness is associated with white matter disruption and cognitive decline. Reduced white matter integrity partially explained the effect of arterial stiffness on cognition.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0271678X2199098
Author(s):  
Saima Hilal ◽  
Siwei Liu ◽  
Tien Yin Wong ◽  
Henri Vrooman ◽  
Ching-Yu Cheng ◽  
...  

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.


2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 1406-1421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Olson ◽  
Paul F. Collins ◽  
Catalina J. Hooper ◽  
Ryan Muetzel ◽  
Kelvin O. Lim ◽  
...  

Healthy participants (n = 79), ages 9–23, completed a delay discounting task assessing the extent to which the value of a monetary reward declines as the delay to its receipt increases. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was used to evaluate how individual differences in delay discounting relate to variation in fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) within whole-brain white matter using voxel-based regressions. Given that rapid prefrontal lobe development is occurring during this age range and that functional imaging studies have implicated the prefrontal cortex in discounting behavior, we hypothesized that differences in FA and MD would be associated with alterations in the discounting rate. The analyses revealed a number of clusters where less impulsive performance on the delay discounting task was associated with higher FA and lower MD. The clusters were located primarily in bilateral frontal and temporal lobes and were localized within white matter tracts, including portions of the inferior and superior longitudinal fasciculi, anterior thalamic radiation, uncinate fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, corticospinal tract, and splenium of the corpus callosum. FA increased and MD decreased with age in the majority of these regions. Some, but not all, of the discounting/DTI associations remained significant after controlling for age. Findings are discussed in terms of both developmental and age-independent effects of white matter organization on discounting behavior.


Neurology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
pp. e30-e39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meher R. Juttukonda ◽  
Giulia Franco ◽  
Dario J. Englot ◽  
Ya-Chen Lin ◽  
Kalen J. Petersen ◽  
...  

ObjectiveTo assess white matter integrity in patients with essential tremor (ET) and Parkinson disease (PD) with moderate to severe motor impairment.MethodsSedated participants with ET (n = 57) or PD (n = 99) underwent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity values were computed. White matter tracts were defined using 3 well-described atlases. To determine candidate white matter regions that differ between ET and PD groups, a bootstrapping analysis was applied using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator. Linear regression was applied to assess magnitude and direction of differences in DTI metrics between ET and PD populations in the candidate regions.ResultsFractional anisotropy values that differentiate ET from PD localize primarily to thalamic and visual-related pathways, while diffusivity differences localized to the cerebellar peduncles. Patients with ET exhibited lower fractional anisotropy values than patients with PD in the lateral geniculate body (p < 0.01), sagittal stratum (p = 0.01), forceps major (p = 0.02), pontine crossing tract (p = 0.03), and retrolenticular internal capsule (p = 0.04). Patients with ET exhibited greater radial diffusivity values than patients with PD in the superior cerebellar peduncle (p < 0.01), middle cerebellar peduncle (p = 0.05), and inferior cerebellar peduncle (p = 0.05).ConclusionsRegionally, distinctive white matter microstructural values in patients with ET localize to the cerebellar peduncles and thalamo-cortical visual pathways. These findings complement recent functional imaging studies in ET but also extend our understanding of putative physiologic features that account for distinctions between ET and PD.


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