Human Brain Functional Connectivity in Resting-State fMRI Data across the Range of Weeks

Background: Cumulative exposure to repetitive sub-concussive head impacts in contact sports may have deleterious effects on brain function, even in the absence of acute symptoms. Moreover, anatomical and biomechanical factors may predispose female athletes to higher risk compared to males. At present, there is no effective injury prevention strategy to protect female athletes from sports-related head impact. Hypothesis/Purpose: (1). We aimed to use resting-state fMRI to investigate the effect of a full season of competitive soccer on brain functional network integrity in female high school athletes. (2). We also aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a jugular vein compression neck collar device, designed to mitigate potential injury by reducing the brain slosh effect. Methods: A total of 125 high school female soccer athletes were included in this study. These athletes were assigned randomly to a non-collar (n=55, age=16.06±1.06 yrs) or collar group (n=70, 15.81±0.95 yrs) before the season started. High resolution 3D T1-weighted images and resting-state fMRI data were collected prospectively at pre-season and again at post-season. Data processing and analysis were conducted in the MATLAB-based programs Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM12) and Connectivity Toolbox (Conn). Functional connectivity was computed between each pair of 105 anatomically delineated regions of interest (ROI). Network Based Statistics were applied to detect coherent patterns of altered connectivity from pre- to post-season. Results: The non-collar group showed a significant pattern of altered connectivity (p-FWE = 0.047) spanning 60% of ROIs (63/105) and 1.7% of ROI-ROI connections (94/5,460). 65 of the 94 altered connections were weakened from pre-to-post season and tended to occur in the right hemisphere. 29 of the 94 altered connections were strengthened from pre-to-post season and tended to involve regions in the occipital lobe. The collar group did not show any statistically significant change (p-FWE = 0.223). Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that exposure to repetitive sub-concussive head impacts during a single season of competitive female soccer induces changes in brain functional connectivity. The observed increases and decreases of functional connectivity strength comprising the pattern of altered connectivity are congruent with a heterogeneous response to insult wherein some connections are reduced in strength due to neuronal damage and other “detour” connections are strengthened to preserve network function. Comparatively, the absence of alterations in the collar group suggest that the jugular vein compression collar may have generated a potentially protective effect to preserve brain functional network integrity during exposure to head impacts. [Figure: see text]

Download Full-text

The Identification of Alzheimer’s Disease Using Functional Connectivity Between Activity Voxels in Resting-State fMRI Data

IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine ◽

10.1109/jtehm.2020.2985022 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. 1-11

Author(s):

Yuhu Shi ◽

Weiming Zeng ◽

Jin Deng ◽

Weifang Nie ◽

Yifei Zhang

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Functional Connectivity ◽

Resting State ◽

Resting State Fmri ◽

Fmri Data

Download Full-text

Changes in brain functional connectivity patterns are driven by an individual lesion in MS: a resting-state fMRI study

Brain Imaging and Behavior ◽

10.1007/s11682-015-9476-3 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 1117-1126 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Amgad Droby ◽

Kenneth S. L. Yuen ◽

Muthuraman Muthuraman ◽

Sarah-Christina Reitz ◽

Vinzenz Fleischer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Resting State ◽

Resting State Fmri ◽

Fmri Study ◽

Connectivity Patterns ◽

Brain Functional Connectivity

Download Full-text

A Potential Biomarker in Sports-Related Concussion: Brain Functional Connectivity Alteration of the Default-Mode Network Measured with Longitudinal Resting-State fMRI over Thirty Days

Journal of Neurotrauma ◽

10.1089/neu.2014.3413 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 32 (5) ◽

pp. 327-341 ◽

Cited By ~ 73

Author(s):

David C. Zhu ◽

Tracey Covassin ◽

Sally Nogle ◽

Scarlett Doyle ◽

Doozie Russell ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Default Mode Network ◽

Resting State ◽

Resting State Fmri ◽

Default Mode ◽

Potential Biomarker ◽

Brain Functional Connectivity

Download Full-text

Model testing for distinctive functional connectivity gradients with resting-state fMRI data

10.1101/298752 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Jonathan F. O’Rawe ◽

Jaime S. Ide ◽

Hoi-Chung Leung

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Resting State ◽

Functional Organization ◽

Region Of Interest ◽

Resting State Fmri ◽

Model Testing ◽

Fmri Data ◽

Extensive Literature ◽

Topographic Organization ◽

Lateral Organization

AbstractIn accordance with the concept of topographic organization of neuroanatomical structures, there is an increased interest in estimating and delineating continuous changes in the functional connectivity patterns across neighboring voxels within a region of interest using resting-state fMRI data. Fundamental to this functional connectivity gradient analysis is the assumption that the functional organization is stable and uniform across the region of interest. To evaluate this assumption, we developed a model testing procedure to arbitrate between overlapping, shifted, or different topographic connectivity gradients across subdivisions of a structure. We tested the procedure using the striatum, a subcortical structure consisting of the caudate nucleus and putamen, in which an extensive literature, primarily from rodents and non-human primates, suggest to have a shared topographic organization of a single diagonal gradient. We found, across multiple resting state fMRI data samples of different spatial resolutions in humans, and one macaque resting state fMRI data sample, that the models with different functional connectivity gradients across the caudate and putamen was the preferred model. The model selection procedure was validated in control conditions of checkerboard subdivisions, demonstrating the expected overlapping gradient. More specifically, while we replicated the diagonal organization of the functional connectivity gradients in both the caudate and putamen, our analysis also revealed a medial-lateral organization within the caudate. Not surprisingly, performing the same analysis assuming a unitary gradient obfuscates the medial-lateral organization of the caudate, producing only a diagonal gradient. These findings demonstrate the importance of testing basic assumptions and evaluating interpretations across species. The significance of differential topographic gradients across the putamen and caudate and the medial-lateral gradient of the caudate in humans should be tested in future studies.

Download Full-text

Evaluating the sensitivity of functional connectivity measures to motion artifact in resting-state fMRI data

10.1101/2020.05.04.072868 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Arun S. Mahadevan ◽

Ursula A. Tooley ◽

Maxwell A. Bertolero ◽

Allyson P. Mackey ◽

Danielle S. Bassett

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Resting State ◽

Partial Correlation ◽

Motion Artifact ◽

Resting State Fmri ◽

Alternative Methods ◽

Fmri Data ◽

Retest Reliability ◽

Human Connectome Project ◽

Test Retest Reliability

AbstractFunctional connectivity (FC) networks are typically inferred from resting-state fMRI data using the Pearson correlation between BOLD time series from pairs of brain regions. However, alternative methods of estimating functional connectivity have not been systematically tested for their sensitivity or robustness to head motion artifact. Here, we evaluate the sensitivity of six different functional connectivity measures to motion artifact using resting-state data from the Human Connectome Project. We report that FC estimated using full correlation has a relatively high residual distance-dependent relationship with motion compared to partial correlation, coherence and information theory-based measures, even after implementing rigorous methods for motion artifact mitigation. This disadvantage of full correlation, however, may be offset by higher test-retest reliability and system identifiability. FC estimated by partial correlation offers the best of both worlds, with low sensitivity to motion artifact and intermediate system identifiability, with the caveat of low test-retest reliability. We highlight spatial differences in the sub-networks affected by motion with different FC metrics. Further, we report that intra-network edges in the default mode and retrosplenial temporal sub-networks are highly correlated with motion in all FC methods. Our findings indicate that the method of estimating functional connectivity is an important consideration in resting-state fMRI studies and must be chosen carefully based on the parameters of the study.

Download Full-text