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- Jakabek, David, et al.
(författare)
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Structural and microstructural thalamocortical network disruption in sporadic behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia
- 2023
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Ingår i: NeuroImage: Clinical. - 2213-1582. ; 39, s. 1-11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Using multi-block methods we combined multimodal neuroimaging metrics of thalamic morphology, thalamic white matter tract diffusion metrics, and cortical thickness to examine changes in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia. (bvFTD). Method: Twenty-three patients with sporadic bvFTD and 24 healthy controls underwent structural and diffusion MRI scans. Clinical severity was assessed using the Clinical Dementia Rating scale and behavioural severity using the Frontal Behaviour Inventory by patient caregivers. Thalamic volumes were manually segmented. Anterior and posterior thalamic radiation fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity were extracted using Tract-Based Spatial Statistics. Finally, cortical thickness was assessed using Freesurfer. We used shape analyses, diffusion measures, and cortical thickness as features in sparse multi-block partial least squares (PLS) discriminatory analyses to classify participants within bvFTD or healthy control groups. Sparsity was tuned with five-fold cross-validation repeated 10 times. Final model fit was assessed using permutation testing. Additionally, sparse multi-block PLS was used to examine associations between imaging features and measures of dementia severity. Results: Bilateral anterior-dorsal thalamic atrophy, reduction in mean diffusivity of thalamic projections, and frontotemporal cortical thinning, were the main features predicting bvFTD group membership. The model had a sensitivity of 96%, specificity of 68%, and was statistically significant using permutation testing (p = 0.012). For measures of dementia severity, we found similar involvement of regional thalamic and cortical areas as in discrimination analyses, although more extensive thalamo-cortical white matter metric changes. Conclusions: Using multimodal neuroimaging, we demonstrate combined structural network dysfunction of anterior cortical regions, cortical-thalamic projections, and anterior thalamic regions in sporadic bvFTD.
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| 2. |
- Owens-Walton, Conor, et al.
(författare)
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Midsagittal corpus callosal thickness and cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease
- 2022
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Ingår i: European Journal of Neuroscience. - : Wiley. - 0953-816X .- 1460-9568. ; 55:7, s. 1859-1872
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- People diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD) can experience significant neuropsychiatric symptoms, including cognitive impairment and dementia, the neuroanatomical substrates of which are not fully characterised. Symptoms associated with cognitive impairment and dementia in PD may relate to direct structural changes to the corpus callosum via primary white matter pathology or as a secondary outcome due to the degeneration of cortical regions. Using magnetic resonance imaging, the corpus callosum can be investigated at the midsagittal plane, where it converges to a contiguous mass and is not intertwined with other tracts. The objective of this project was thus twofold: First, we investigated possible changes in the thickness of the midsagittal callosum and cortex in patients with PD with varying levels of cognitive impairment; and secondly, we investigated the relationship between the thickness of the midsagittal corpus callosum and the thickness of the cortex. Study participants included cognitively unimpaired PD participants (n = 35), PD participants with mild cognitive impairment (n = 22), PD participants with dementia (n = 17) and healthy controls (n = 27). We found thinning of the callosum in PD-related dementia compared with PD-related mild cognitive impairment and cognitively unimpaired PD participants. Regression analyses found thickness of the left medial orbitofrontal cortex to be positively correlated with thickness of the anterior callosum in PD-related mild cognitive impairment. This study suggests that a midsagittal thickness model can uncover changes to the corpus callosum in PD-related dementia, which occur in line with changes to the cortex in this advanced disease stage.
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| 3. |
- Owens-Walton, Conor, et al.
(författare)
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Structural and functional neuroimaging changes associated with cognitive impairment and dementia in Parkinson's disease
- 2021
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Ingår i: Psychiatry Research - Neuroimaging. - : Elsevier BV. - 0925-4927. ; 312
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study seeks a better understanding of possible pathophysiological mechanisms associated with cognitive impairment and dementia in Parkinson's disease using structural and functional MRI. We investigated resting-state functional connectivity of important subdivisions of the caudate nucleus, putamen and thalamus, and also how the morphology of these structures are impacted in the disorder. We found cognitively unimpaired Parkinson's disease subjects (n = 33), compared to controls (n = 26), display increased functional connectivity of the dorsal caudate, anterior putamen and mediodorsal thalamic subdivisions with areas across the frontal lobe, as well as reduced functional connectivity of the dorsal caudate with posterior cortical and cerebellar regions. Compared to cognitively unimpaired subjects, those with mild cognitive impairment (n = 22) demonstrated reduced functional connectivity of the mediodorsal thalamus with the paracingulate cortex, while also demonstrating increased functional connectivity of the mediodorsal thalamus with the posterior cingulate cortex, compared to subjects with dementia (n = 17). Extensive volumetric and surface-based deflation was found in subjects with dementia compared to cognitively unimpaired Parkinson's disease participants and controls. Our research suggests that structures within basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits are implicated in cognitive impairment and dementia in Parkinson's disease, with cognitive impairment and dementia associated with a breakdown in functional connectivity of the mediodorsal thalamus with para- and posterior cingulate regions of the brain respectively.
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