The ENIGMA Brain Injury Working Group: Approach, Challenges, and Potential Benefits

Author(s):  
Elisabeth A. Wilde ◽  
Emily L. Dennis ◽  
David F Tate

The Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) consortium brings together researchers from around the world to try to identify the genetic underpinnings of brain structure and function, along with robust, generalizable effects of neurological and psychiatric disorders. The recently-formed ENIGMA Brain Injury working group includes 8 subgroups, based largely on injury mechanism and patient population. This introduction to the special issue summarizes the history, organization, and objectives of ENIGMA Brain Injury, and includes a discussion of strategies, challenges, opportunities and goals common across 6 of the subgroups under the umbrella of ENIGMA Brain Injury. The following articles in this special issue, including 6 articles from different subgroups, will detail the challenges and opportunities specific to each subgroup.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David F Tate ◽  
Emily L. Dennis ◽  
John T Adams ◽  
Maheen Adamson ◽  
Heather G Belanger ◽  
...  

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is common among military personnel and is often followed by a heterogeneous array of clinical, cognitive, behavioral, mood, and neuroimaging changes. This inconsistent presentation makes it difficult to establish or validate biological and imaging markers that could help improve diagnostic and prognostic accuracy in this patient population. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe both the challenges and opportunities when conducting research with Service Members and Veterans and introduce the Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) Military Brain Injury working group. ENIGMA is a worldwide consortium focused on improving replicability and analytical power through data sharing and collaboration. In this paper, we discuss challenges affecting efforts to aggregate data in this patient group. In addition, we highlight how “big data” approaches might be used to understand better the role that each of these variables might play in the imaging and functional phenotypes of TBI in Service Member and Veteran populations, and how data may be used to examine important military specific issues such as return to duty, the late effects of combat-related injury, and alteration of the natural aging processes.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily L. Dennis ◽  
Karen Caeyenberghs ◽  
Robert F. Asarnow ◽  
Talin Babikian ◽  
Brenda Bartnik-Olson ◽  
...  

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of death and disability in children in both developed and developing nations. Children and adolescents suffer from TBI at a higher rate than the general population; however, research in this population lags behind research in adults. This may be due, in part, to the smaller number of investigators engaged in research with this population and may also be related to changes in safety laws and clinical practice that have altered length of hospital stays, treatment, and access to this population. Specific developmental issues also warrant attention in studies of children, and the ever-changing context of childhood and adolescence may require larger sample sizes than are commonly available to adequately address remaining questions related to TBI. The ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis) Pediatric Moderate-Severe TBI (msTBI) group aims to advance research in this area through global collaborative meta-analysis. In this paper we discuss important challenges in pediatric TBI research and opportunities that we believe the ENIGMA Pediatric msTBI group can provide to address them. We conclude with recommendations for future research in this field of study.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Olsen ◽  
Talin Babikian ◽  
Erin D. Bigler ◽  
Karen Caeyenberghs ◽  
Virginia Conde ◽  
...  

The global burden of mortality and morbidity caused by traumatic brain injury (TBI) is significant and the heterogeneity of TBI patients and the relatively small sample sizes of most current neuroimaging studies is a major challenge for scientific advances and clinical translation. The ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis) Adult moderate/severe TBI (AMS-TBI) working group aims to be a driving force for new discoveries in AMS-TBI by providing researchers world-wide with an effective framework and platform for large-scale cross-border collaboration and data sharing. Based on the principles of transparency, rigor, reproducibility and collaboration, we will facilitate the development and dissemination of multiscale and big data analysis pipelines for harmonized analyses in AMS-TBI using structural and functional neuroimaging in combination with nonimaging biomarkers, genetics, as well as clinical and behavioral measures. Ultimately, we will offer investigators an unprecedented opportunity to test important hypotheses about recovery and morbidity in AMS-TBI by taking advantage of our robust methods for largescale neuroimaging data analysis. In this consensus statement we outline the working group’s short-term, intermediate, and long-term goals.


BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. e040603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam H Beauchamp ◽  
Fanny Dégeilh ◽  
Keith Yeates ◽  
Isabelle Gagnon ◽  
Ken Tang ◽  
...  

IntroductionMild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is highly prevalent, especially in children under 6 years. However, little research focuses on the consequences of mTBI early in development. The objective of the Kids’ Outcomes And Long-term Abilities (KOALA) study is to document the impact of early mTBI on children’s motor, cognitive, social and behavioural functioning, as well as on quality of life, stress, sleep and brain integrity.Methods and analysesKOALA is a prospective, multicentre, longitudinal cohort study of children aged 6 months to 6 years at the time of injury/recruitment. Children who sustain mTBI (n=150) or an orthopaedic injury (n=75) will be recruited from three paediatric emergency departments (PEDs), and compared with typically developing children (community controls, n=75). A comprehensive battery of prognostic and outcome measures will be collected in the PED, at 10 days, 1, 3 and 12 months postinjury. Biological measures, including measures of brain structure and function (magnetic resonance imaging, MRI), stress (hair cortisol), sleep (actigraphy) and genetics (saliva), will complement direct testing of function using developmental and neuropsychological measures and parent questionnaires. Group comparisons and predictive models will test the a priori hypotheses that, compared with children from the community or with orthopaedic injuries, children with mTBI will (1) display more postconcussive symptoms and exhibit poorer motor, cognitive, social and behavioural functioning; (2) show evidence of altered brain structure and function, poorer sleep and higher levels of stress hormones. A combination of child, injury, socioenvironmental and psychobiological factors are expected to predict behaviour and quality of life at 1, 3 and 12 months postinjury.Ethics and disseminationThe KOALA study is approved by the Sainte-Justine University Hospital, McGill University Health Centre and University of Calgary Conjoint Health Research Ethics Boards. Parents of participants will provide written consent. Dissemination will occur through peer-reviewed journals and an integrated knowledge translation plan.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Maldonado-Rodriguez ◽  
Clara Val Crocker ◽  
Edward Taylor ◽  
K. Elisabeth Jones ◽  
Krystal Rothlander ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTIntimate partner violence (IPV) affects at least 1 in 3 women worldwide and up to 92% report symptoms consistent with brain injury (BI). Although a handful of studies have examined different aspects of brain structure and function in this population, none has characterized potential deficits in cognitive-motor function. This knowledge gap was addressed in the current study by having participants who had experienced IPV complete the bimanual Object Hit & Avoid (OHA) task on a Kinarm End-Point Lab. BI load, as assessed by the Brain Injury Severity Assessment (BISA) tool as well as measures of comorbidities (PTSD, anxiety, depression, substance use, history of abuse) were also collected. Results demonstrated BI load accounted for a significant amount of variability in the number of targets hit and average hand speed. PTSD, anxiety, and depression also contributed significantly to the variability in these measures as well as to the number and proportion of distractor hits, and the object processing rate. Taken together, these findings suggest IPV-related BI, as well as comorbid PTSD, anxiety, and depression, disrupt the processing required to quickly and accurately hit targets while avoiding distractors. This pattern of results reflects the complex interaction between the physical injuries induced by the episodes of IPV and the resulting impacts these experiences have on mental health.


Author(s):  
Nirupama R. Akella

This chapter is a meta-analysis of teen brain research and social media technology such as Facebook that could result in spiraling rates of teenage pregnancy. The author discusses contemporary theories of brain circuitry including teen brain structure and function as one of the plausible reasons for rising teenage pregnancy rates. The author argues that the challenge is to control the quality and influence of Facebook on teen behaviors, actions, and decisions to minimize the growing influence of social networking sites. In the conclusive section of the chapter, the author focuses on the expansion and extension of instructional and non-instructional physical activities, exergames, and active video games strategies to control the quality and influence of Facebook content by presenting research that advocates use of such activities and games within the Facebook interface. The author ends the chapter by mapping a future research direction of cross-cultural empirical investigation. The author wraps the chapter with a summative conclusion.


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