Dataset Information

Universality in human cortical folding in health and disease.

ABSTRACT: The folding of the cortex in mammalian brains across species has recently been shown to follow a universal scaling law that can be derived from a simple physics model. However, it was yet to be determined whether this law also applies to the morphological diversity of different individuals in a single species, in particular with respect to factors, such as age, sex, and disease. To this end, we derived and investigated the cortical morphology from magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of over 1,000 healthy human subjects from three independent public databases. Our results show that all three MRI datasets follow the scaling law obtained from the comparative neuroanatomical data, which strengthens the case for the existence of a common mechanism for cortical folding. Additionally, for comparable age groups, both male and female brains scale in exactly the same way, despite systematic differences in size and folding. Furthermore, age introduces a systematic shift in the offset of the scaling law. In the model, this shift can be interpreted as changes in the mechanical forces acting on the cortex. We also applied this analysis to a dataset derived from comparable cohorts of Alzheimer's disease patients and healthy subjects of similar age. We show a systematically lower offset and a possible change in the exponent for Alzheimer's disease subjects compared with the control cohort. Finally, we discuss implications of the changes in offset and exponent in the data and relate it to existing literature. We, thus, provide a possible mechanistic link between previously independent observations.

SUBMITTER: Wang Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5111660 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Universality in human cortical folding in health and disease.

Wang Yujiang Y Necus Joe J Kaiser Marcus M Mota Bruno B

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20161024 45

The folding of the cortex in mammalian brains across species has recently been shown to follow a universal scaling law that can be derived from a simple physics model. However, it was yet to be determined whether this law also applies to the morphological diversity of different individuals in a single species, in particular with respect to factors, such as age, sex, and disease. To this end, we derived and investigated the cortical morphology from magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of over 1,000 h ...[more]

PMID: 27791126

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Project description:We evaluated 22 measures of cortical folding, 20 derived from local curvature (curvature-based measures) and two based on other features (sulcal depth and gyrification index), for their capacity to distinguish between normal and aberrant cortical development. Cortical surfaces were reconstructed from 12 term-born control and 63 prematurely-born infants. Preterm infants underwent 2-4 MR imaging sessions between 27 and 42weeks postmenstrual age (PMA). Term infants underwent a single MR imaging session during the first postnatal week. Preterm infants were divided into two groups. One group (38 infants) had no/minimal abnormalities on qualitative assessment of conventional MR images. The second group (25 infants) consisted of infants with injury on conventional MRI at term equivalent PMA. For both preterm infant groups, all folding measures increased or decreased monotonically with increasing PMA, but only sulcal depth and gyrification index differentiated preterm infants with brain injury from those without. We also compared scans obtained at term equivalent PMA (36-42weeks) for all three groups. No curvature-based measured distinguished between the groups, whereas sulcal depth distinguished term control from injured preterm infants and gyrification index distinguished all three groups. When incorporating total cerebral volume into the statistical model, sulcal depth no longer distinguished between the groups, though gyrification index distinguished between all three groups and positive shape index distinguished between the term control and uninjured preterm groups. We also analyzed folding measures averaged over brain lobes separately. These results demonstrated similar patterns to those obtained from the whole brain analyses. Overall, though the curvature-based measures changed during this period of rapid cerebral development, they were not sensitive for detecting the differences in folding associated with brain injury and/or preterm birth. In contrast, gyrification index was effective in differentiating these groups.

Dataset Information

Universality in human cortical folding in health and disease.

Publications

Universality in human cortical folding in health and disease.

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