Dataset Information

Compensatory functional reorganization may precede hypertension-related brain damage and cognitive decline: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Our study aimed at exploring structural and functional differences in the brain during higher cognitive processing between middle-aged hypertensive patients and controls matched for sex, age and years of education.

Methods

Two groups of 20 patients took part in MRI examinations. This article reports the results of functional MRI during a Stroop color interference task and structural evaluations based on a modified Fazekas scale.

Results

No intergroup differences were found in regards to the severity of white matter lesions (Mann-Whitney U test?=?150.5, P?>?0.1), nor from the task performance in the scanner (t(35)?=?0.2, P?>?0.1). However, brain activation patterns between patients and controls varied. Hypertensive patients involved significantly more cerebral areas during the processing, regardless of the task difficulty. Differences were found in 26 diverse regions of both primary and associative cortices (with a peak voxel located in the cuneus, Z?=?6.94, P?ConclusionOur findings provide an insight into the brain mechanisms related to essential hypertension and suggest a functional reorganization (neuroplasticity) early in the course of the disease.

SUBMITTER: Naumczyk P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5404398 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Compensatory functional reorganization may precede hypertension-related brain damage and cognitive decline: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Naumczyk Patrycja P Sabisz Agnieszka A Witkowska Marta M Graff Beata B Jodzio Krzysztof K Gąsecki Dariusz D Szurowska Edyta E Narkiewicz Krzysztof K

Journal of hypertension 20170601 6

<h4>Objectives</h4>Our study aimed at exploring structural and functional differences in the brain during higher cognitive processing between middle-aged hypertensive patients and controls matched for sex, age and years of education.<h4>Methods</h4>Two groups of 20 patients took part in MRI examinations. This article reports the results of functional MRI during a Stroop color interference task and structural evaluations based on a modified Fazekas scale.<h4>Results</h4>No intergroup differences ...[more]

PMID: 28169883

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Project description:Novel and non-routine tasks often require information processing and behavior to adapt from moment to moment depending on task requirements and current performance. This ability to adapt is an executive function that is referred to as cognitive control. Patients with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) have been reported to exhibit impairments in cognitive control and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has provided evidence for TBI-related alterations in brain activation using various fMRI cognitive control paradigms. There is some support for greater and more extensive cognitive control-related brain activation in patients with moderate-to-severe TBI, relative to comparison subjects without TBI. In addition, some studies have reported a correlation between these activation increases and measures of injury severity. Explanations that have been proposed for increased activation within structures that are thought to be directly involved in cognitive control, as well as the extension of this over-activation into other brain structures, have included compensatory mechanisms, increased demand upon normal processes required to maintain adequate performance, less efficient utilization of neural resources, and greater vulnerability to cognitive fatigue. Recent findings are also consistent with the possibility that activation increases within some structures, such as the posterior cingulate gyrus, may reflect a failure to deactivate components of the default mode network (DMN) and that some cognitive control impairment may result from ineffective coordination between the DMN and components of the salience network. Functional neuroimaging studies examining cognitive control-related activation following mild TBI (mTBI) have yielded more variable results, with reports of increases, decreases, and no significant change. These discrepancies may reflect differences among the various mTBI samples under study, recovery of function in some patients, different task characteristics, and the presence of comorbid conditions such as depression and posttraumatic stress disorder that also alter brain activation. There may be mTBI populations with activation changes that overlap with those found following more severe injuries, including symptomatic mTBI patients and those with acute injuries, but future research to address such dysfunction will require well-defined samples with adequate controls for injury characteristics, comorbid disorders, and severity of post-concussive symptoms.

Dataset Information

Compensatory functional reorganization may precede hypertension-related brain damage and cognitive decline: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Publications

Compensatory functional reorganization may precede hypertension-related brain damage and cognitive decline: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Similar Datasets

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