scholarly journals Twin-Singleton Differences in Neonatal Brain Structure

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 268-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca C. Knickmeyer ◽  
Chaeryon Kang ◽  
Sandra Woolson ◽  
J. Keith Smith ◽  
Robert M. Hamer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Gestational Age ◽  
Twin Studies ◽  
Postnatal Period ◽  
Intracranial Volume ◽  
Brain Volumes ◽  
Mri Scans ◽  
Mz Twins ◽  
The Relationship

Twin studies suggest that global and regional brain volumes are highly heritable. However, estimates of heritability vary across development. Given that all twin studies are open to the potential criticism of non-generalizability due to differences in intrauterine environment between twins and singletons, these age effects may reflect the influence of perinatal environmental factors, which are unique to twins and which may be especially evident early in life. To address this question, we compared brain volumes and the relationship of brain volumes to gestational age in 136 singletons (67 male, 69 female) and 154 twins (75 male, 79 female; 82 DZ, 72 MZ) who had received high resolution MRI scans of the brain in the first month of life. Intracranial volume, total white matter, and ventricle volumes did not differ between twins and singletons. However, cerebrospinal fluid and frontal white matter volume was greater in twins compared to singletons. While gray matter volumes at MRI did not differ between groups, the slope of the relationship between total and cortical gray matter and gestational age at the MRI scan was steeper in MZ twins compared to DZ twins. Post-hoc analyses suggested that gray matter development is delayed in MZ twins in utero and that they experience ‘catch-up’ growth in the first month of life. These differences should be taken into account when interpreting and designing studies in the early postnatal period.

scholarly journals The Longitudinal Association of Walking Efficiency With Brain Volumes in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 783-783
Author(s):  
Jennifer Schrack ◽  
Fangyu Liu ◽  
Amal Wanigatunga ◽  
Yang An ◽  
Christos Davatzikos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Region Of Interest ◽  
Cognitive Status ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Intracranial Volume ◽  
Brain Volumes ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Lower Baseline ◽  
Longitudinal Association ◽  
Mri Scans ◽  
Walking Efficiency

Abstract Walking efficiency (WE) predicts mobility decline and is linked with higher fatigability. Fatigability is associated with cognitive decline and reduced brain volumes (BV), but the link between WE and BV is undefined. We examined associations between WE and BV in 860 participants of the BLSA (mean age 66.4(14.4) years, 54.5% women). WE was assessed during 2.5-minutes of usual-paced walking using indirect calorimetry and standardized per meter (ml/kg/m). BV measures were derived using MRI scans and an automated multi-atlas region-of-interest approach. In linear mixed models adjusted for demographics, education, BMI, intracranial volume, and cognitive status, lower baseline WE was associated with lower total, white, and gray matter, primarily in the frontal and temporal lobes (all p<0.05). Longitudinally, declining WE was associated with increasing ventricular and decreasing hippocampal volumes over follow-up (all p<0.01). Findings suggest rising age-related inefficiencies may reflect underlying brain atrophy and serve as a novel indicator for future interventions.

scholarly journals Blood-based bioenergetic profiling is related to differences in brain morphology in African Americans with Type 2 diabetes

2018 ◽  
Vol 132 (23) ◽  
pp. 2509-2518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gargi Mahapatra ◽  
S. Carrie Smith ◽  
Timothy M. Hughes ◽  
Benjamin Wagner ◽  
Joseph A. Maldjian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Type 2 Diabetes ◽  
White Matter ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Mitochondrial Function ◽  
Brain Morphology ◽  
Intracranial Volume ◽  
Peripheral Blood Mononuclear ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Blood-based bioenergetic profiling has promising applications as a minimally invasive biomarker of systemic bioenergetic capacity. In the present study, we examined peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) mitochondrial function and brain morphology in a cohort of African Americans with long-standing Type 2 diabetes. Key parameters of PBMC respiration were correlated with white matter, gray matter, and total intracranial volumes. Our analyses indicate that these relationships are primarily driven by the relationship of systemic bioenergetic capacity with total intracranial volume, suggesting that systemic differences in mitochondrial function may play a role in overall brain morphology.

The relationship between white matter fiber damage and gray matter perfusion in large-scale functionally defined networks in multiple sclerosis

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (14) ◽  
pp. 1884-1892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Y Ma ◽  
Rita C Vitorino ◽  
Seyed-Parsa Hojjat ◽  
Alannah D Mulholland ◽  
Liying Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Sclerosis ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Progressive Multiple Sclerosis ◽  
Functional Networks ◽  
Lesion Volume ◽  
Fiber Damage ◽  
Damage Extent ◽  
The Relationship

Background: Recent studies utilizing perfusion as a surrogate of cortical integrity show promise for overall cognition, but the association between white matter (WM) damage and gray matter (GM) integrity in specific functional networks is not previously studied. Objective: To investigate the relationship between WM fiber integrity and GM node perfusion within six functional networks of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) patients. Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neurocognitive testing were performed on 19 healthy controls (HC), 39 RRMS, and 45 SPMS patients. WM damage extent and severity were quantified with T2-hyper/T1-hypointense (T2h/T1h) lesion volume and degree of perfusion reduction in lesional and normal-appearing white matter (NAWM), respectively. A two-step linear regression corrected for confounders was employed. Results: Cognitive impairment was present in 20/39 (51%) RRMS and 25/45 (53%) SPMS patients. GM node perfusion was associated with WM fiber damage severity (WM hypoperfusion) within each network—including both NAWM ( R2 = 0.67–0.89, p < 0.0001) and T2h ( R2 = 0.39–0.62, p < 0.0001) WM regions—but was not significantly associated ( p > 0.01) with WM fiber damage extent (i.e. T2h/T1h lesion volumes). Conclusion: Overall, GM node perfusion was associated with severity rather than extent of WM network damage, supporting a primary etiology of GM hypoperfusion.

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.

scholarly journals Longitudinal Association Between Perceived Fatigability and Brain Volumes in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 209-209
Author(s):  
Fangyu Liu ◽  
Yang An ◽  
Amal Wanigatunga ◽  
Alden Gross ◽  
Eleanor Simonsick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Brain Atrophy ◽  
Perceived Exertion ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Rating Of Perceived Exertion ◽  
Intracranial Volume ◽  
Brain Volumes ◽  
Potential Marker ◽  
Longitudinal Association

Abstract Perceived fatigability is linked to declining physical and cognitive performance, yet whether fatigability reflects early subclinical change in brain structure is unknown. Using mixed effects models, we assessed the longitudinal association of 3T MRI-derived brain volumes with perceived fatigability after a 5-min treadmill walk (0.67 m/s, 0% grade) using the Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion scale (range 6-20) in 802 BLSA participants (age 68.2+/-12.4 years, 45% men 66% White). In models adjusted for intracranial volume, demographics, chronic conditions, and CESD score, declining gray matter volumes in the frontal (β=-0.01) and temporal (β=-0.02) lobes, as well as the hippocampus (β=-0.25), precuneus (β=-0.10) and thalamus (β=-0.19) were associated with higher fatigability. Larger ventricular volumes were also associated with higher fatigability (β=0.02). Brain atrophy, particularly in gray matter and the hippocampal region, is longitudinally associated with increased fatigability in cognitively normal older adults, making it a potential marker of brain atrophy.

scholarly journals Association Between Brain Volumes and Patterns of Physical Activity in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amal A Wanigatunga ◽  
Hang Wang ◽  
Yang An ◽  
Eleanor M Simonsick ◽  
Qu Tian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Brain Structure ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Intracranial Volume ◽  
Accelerometer Data ◽  
Brain Volumes ◽  
Cognitively Normal

Abstract Background Larger brain volumes are often associated with more free-living physical activity (PA) in cognitively normal older adults. Yet, whether greater brain volumes are associated with more favorable (less fragmented) PA patterns, and whether this association is stronger than with total PA, remains unknown. Methods Brain magnetic resonance imaging and wrist-worn accelerometer data were collected in 301 participants (mean age = 77 [SD = 7] years, 59% women) enrolled in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Linear regression models were fit to examine whether brain volumes (cc) were cross-sectionally associated with: (a) total daily PA minutes and (b) activity fragmentation (mean number of PA bouts / total PA minutes × 100). Sensitivity analyses were conducted by adjusting for counterpart PA variables (eg, fragmentation covariate included in the PA minutes model). Results Greater white matter volumes in the parietal and temporal lobes were associated with higher daily PA minutes (2.6 [SE = 1.0] and 3.8 [0.9] min/day, respectively; p &lt; .009 for both) after adjusting for demographics, behavioral factors, medical conditions, gait speed, apolipoprotein E e4 status, and intracranial volume. Greater temporal white matter volume was associated with lower fragmentation (−0.16% [0.05], p = .003). In sensitivity analyses, observed associations between brain volumes and daily PA minutes remained significant while associations with fragmentation no longer remained significant. Conclusions Our results suggest white matter brain structure in cognitively normal older adults is associated with the total amount of PA and, to a lesser extent, the PA accumulation patterns. More work is needed to elucidate the longitudinal relationship between brain structure and function and PA patterns with aging.

The Relationship Between Isolated Hypertension with Brain Volumes in UK Biobank

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Newby ◽  
Laura Winchester ◽  
William Sproviero ◽  
Marco Fernandes ◽  
Upamanyu Ghose ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
Grey Matter ◽  
Brain Mri ◽  
Uk Biobank ◽  
Brain Health ◽  
Brain Volumes ◽  
Dementia Risk ◽  
Diastolic Hypertension ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Hypertension is a well-established risk factor for cognitive impairment, brain atrophy, and dementia. However, the relationship of other types of hypertension, such as, isolated hypertension on brain health and its comparison to systolic-diastolic hypertension (where systolic and diastolic measures are high), is still relatively unknown. Due to its increased prevalence, it is important to investigate the impact of isolated hypertension to help understand its potential impact on cognitive decline and future dementia risk. In this study, we compared a variety of global brain measures between participants with isolated hypertension to those with normal blood pressure or systolic-diastolic hypertension using the largest cohort of healthy individuals. Using the UK Biobank cohort, we carried out a cross-sectional study using 29775 participants [mean age 63 years, 53% female] with BP measurements and brain MRI data. We used linear regression models adjusted for multiple confounders to compare a variety of global, sub cortical and white matter brain measures. We compared participants with either isolated systolic or diastolic hypertension with normotensives and then with participants with systolic-diastolic hypertension. The results showed that participants with isolated systolic or diastolic hypertension taking BP medications had smaller grey matter but larger white matter microstructures and macrostructures compared to normotensives. However, isolated hypertensives had larger total grey matter and smaller white matter traits when comparing these regions with participants with systolic-diastolic hypertension.These results provide support to investigate possible preventative strategies that target isolated hypertension as well as systolic-diastolic hypertension to maintain brain health and/or reduce dementia risk earlier in life particularly in white matter regions.

Abstract WP451: Cognitive Impairment in Cardiac Disease - Neuroimaging Associations

Stroke ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Cannon ◽  
Mark Findlay ◽  
Krishna Dani ◽  
Jesse Dawson ◽  
David A Dickie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Cardiac Disease ◽  
Small Vessel Disease ◽  
Brain Mri ◽  
Perivascular Spaces ◽  
Intracranial Volume ◽  
Brain Volumes ◽  
Multivariable Models ◽  
Cardiac Status

Introduction: Atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure (HF) are associated with cognitive impairment. We used neuroimaging to describe if this association is explained by cardioembolism or other mechanisms. Methods: We included adults with HF (ejection fraction<45%) and AF but no stroke history. Healthy volunteer controls were matched, 1:2 ratio. Participants were assessed with Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neurospychological Status (RBANS), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Score (HADS) and 3-T brain MRI. Scans were graded for:infarct, enlarged perivascular spaces, microbleeds, global and regional (hippocampal) atrophy with consensus scoring by four raters using validated, ordinal assessment scales. Brain volumes were semi-automatically acquired using cluster analysis of T1-weighted and FLAIR voxel intensities and diffeomorphic atlas-based segmentation. CSF, hippocampal and white matter volumes were corrected for intracranial volume. We described univariable differences between groups and then created multivariable models where cardiac status was the dependent variable, RBANS and MRI data were the predictors. Results: Of 50 participants, AF-HF (n=34) had poorer RBANS (MD:16.9, SE:3.44; p<0.001). Differences were independent of education and HADS. Infarcts and ordinal markers of atrophy were significantly different between groups, SVD markers were increased in AF-HF but did not reach significance. Quantitative measures of white matter differed between groups but measures of atrophy did not.(Table) On multivariable models, no imaging feature was independently associated with cardiac status. Discussion: The association between cognitive impairment and cardiac disease may not be solely driven by occult cardioembolism; small vessel disease and other, neuroimaging independent, factors also interact. Differences between ordinal scales and quantitative scores suggest that future studies should use robust volumetric analyses.

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