Gray Matter Microstructural Abnormalities and Working Memory Deficits in Individuals with Schizophrenia.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Kim H
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6444097 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Previous studies demonstrate that ethanol dependence induced by repeating cycles of chronic intermittent ethanol vapor exposure (CIE) followed by protracted abstinence (CIE-PA) produces significant alterations in oligodendrogenesis in the rodent medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Specifically, CIE-PA produced an unprecedented increase in premyelinating oligodendroglial progenitor cells and myelin, which have been associated with persistent elevated drinking behaviors during abstinence. The current study used neuroimaging and electron microscopy to evaluate the integrity of enhanced myelin and microstructural deficits underlying enhanced myelination in the mPFC in male rats experiencing forced abstinence for 1 day (D), 7D, 21D and 42D following seven weeks of CIE. In vivo diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) detected altered microstructural integrity in the mPFC and corpus callosum (CC). Altered integrity was characterized as reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) in the CC, and enhanced mean diffusivity (MD) in the mPFC in 7D abstinent rats. Increased MD occurred concomitantly with increases in myelin associated proteins, flayed myelin and enhanced mitochondrial stress in the mPFC in 7D abstinent rats, suggesting that the increases in myelination during abstinence was aberrant. Evaluation of cognitive performance via Pavlovian conditioning in 7D abstinent rats revealed reduced retrieval and recall of fear memories dependent on the mPFC. These findings indicate that forced abstinence from moderate to severe alcohol use disorder produces gray matter damage via myelin dysfunction in the mPFC and that these microstructural changes were associated with deficits in PFC dependent behaviors.
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Project description:The regional distribution of white matter (WM) abnormalities in schizophrenia remains poorly understood, and reported disease effects on the brain vary widely between studies. In an effort to identify commonalities across studies, we perform what we believe is the first ever large-scale coordinated study of WM microstructural differences in schizophrenia. Our analysis consisted of 2359 healthy controls and 1963 schizophrenia patients from 29 independent international studies; we harmonized the processing and statistical analyses of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data across sites and meta-analyzed effects across studies. Significant reductions in fractional anisotropy (FA) in schizophrenia patients were widespread, and detected in 20 of 25 regions of interest within a WM skeleton representing all major WM fasciculi. Effect sizes varied by region, peaking at (d=0.42) for the entire WM skeleton, driven more by peripheral areas as opposed to the core WM where regions of interest were defined. The anterior corona radiata (d=0.40) and corpus callosum (d=0.39), specifically its body (d=0.39) and genu (d=0.37), showed greatest effects. Significant decreases, to lesser degrees, were observed in almost all regions analyzed. Larger effect sizes were observed for FA than diffusivity measures; significantly higher mean and radial diffusivity was observed for schizophrenia patients compared with controls. No significant effects of age at onset of schizophrenia or medication dosage were detected. As the largest coordinated analysis of WM differences in a psychiatric disorder to date, the present study provides a robust profile of widespread WM abnormalities in schizophrenia patients worldwide. Interactive three-dimensional visualization of the results is available at www.enigma-viewer.org.
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Project description:Substantial evidence implicates working memory (WM) as a core deficit in schizophrenia (SCZ), purportedly due to primary deficits in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex functioning. Recent findings suggest that SCZ is also associated with abnormalities in suppression of certain regions during cognitive engagement--namely the default mode system--that may further contribute to WM pathology. However, no study has systematically examined activation and suppression abnormalities across both encoding and maintenance phases of WM in SCZ. Twenty-eight patients and 24 demographically matched healthy subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging at 3T while performing a delayed match-to-sample WM task. Groups were accuracy matched to rule out performance effects. Encoding load was identical across subjects to facilitate comparisons across WM phases. We examined activation differences using an assumed model approach at the whole-brain level and within meta-analytically defined WM areas. Despite matched performance, we found regions showing less recruitment during encoding and maintenance for SCZ subjects. Furthermore, we identified 2 areas closely matching the default system, which SCZ subjects failed to deactivate across WM phases. Lastly, activation in prefrontal regions predicted the degree of deactivation for healthy but not SCZ subjects. Current results replicate and extend prefrontal recruitment abnormalities across WM phases in SCZ. Results also indicate deactivation abnormalities across WM phases, possibly due to inefficient prefrontal recruitment. Such regional deactivation may be critical for suppressing sources of interference during WM trace formation. Thus, deactivation deficits may constitute an additional source of impairments, which needs to be further characterized for a complete understanding of WM pathology in SCZ.
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Project description:Dysconnectivity between brain regions is thought to underlie the cognitive abnormalities that characterise schizophrenia (SZ). Consistent with this notion functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies in SZ have reliably provided evidence of abnormalities in functional integration and in white matter connectivity. Yet little is known about how alterations at the functional level related to abnormalities in anatomical connectivity.We obtained fMRI data during the 2-back working memory task from 25 patients with SZ and 19 healthy controls matched for age, sex and IQ. DTI data were also acquired in the same session. In addition to conventional unimodal analyses we extracted "features" [contrast maps for fMRI and fractional anisotropy (FA) for DTI] that were subjected to joint independent component analysis (JICA) in order to examine interactions between fMRI and DTI data sources.Conventional unimodal analyses revealed both functional and structural deficits in patients with SZ. The JICA identified regions of joint, multimodal brain sources that differed in patients and controls. The fMRI source implicated regions within the anterior cingulate and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and in the cuneus where patients showed relative hypoactivation and within the frontopolar cortex where patients showed relative hyperactivation. The DTI source localised reduced FA in patients in the splenium and posterior cingulum.This study promotes our understanding of structure-function relationships in SZ by characterising linked functional and white matter changes that contribute to working memory dysfunction in this disorder.
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Project description:BackgroundAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)-related white-matter microstructural abnormalities have received considerable attention; however, gray-matter structural abnormalities have not been fully elucidated. This study aimed to evaluate cortical microstructural abnormalities in ALS and determine their association with disease severity.MethodsThis study included 34 patients with ALS and 30 healthy controls. Diffusion-weighted data were used to estimate neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) parameters, including neurite density index (NDI) and orientation dispersion index (ODI). We performed gray matter-based spatial statistics (GBSS) in a voxel-wise manner to determine the cortical microstructure difference. We used the revised ALS Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS-R) to assess disease severity and conducted a correlation analysis between NODDI parameters and ALSFRS-R.ResultsIn patients with ALS, the NDI reduction involved several cortical regions [primarily the precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus, temporal cortex, prefrontal cortex, occipital cortex, and posterior parietal cortex; family-wise error (FWE)-corrected P<0.05]. ODI decreased in relatively few cortical regions (including the precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus, prefrontal cortex, and inferior parietal lobule; FWE-corrected P<0.05). The NDI value in the left precentral and postcentral gyrus was positively correlated with the ALS disease severity (FWE-corrected P<0.05).ConclusionsThe decreases in NDI and ODI involved both motor-related and extra-motor regions and indicated the presence of gray-matter microstructural impairment in ALS. NODDI parameters are potential imaging biomarkers for evaluating disease severity in vivo. Our results showed that GBSS is a feasible method for identifying abnormalities in the cortical microstructure of patients with ALS.
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Project description:This study aimed to investigate abnormalities in the gray matter and white matter (GM and WM, respectively) that are shared between schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD). We used 3T-magnetic resonance imaging to examine patients with SZ, BD, or healthy control (HC) subjects (aged 20-50 years, N = 65 in each group). We generated modulated GM maps through voxel-based morphometry (VBM) for T1-weighted images and skeletonized fractional anisotropy, mean diffusion, and radial diffusivity maps through tract-based special statistics (TBSS) methods for diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data. These data were analyzed using a generalized linear model with pairwise comparisons between groups with a family-wise error corrected P < 0.017. The VBM analysis revealed widespread decreases in GM volume in SZ compared to HC, but patients with BD showed GM volume deficits limited to the right thalamus and left insular lobe. The TBSS analysis showed alterations of DTI parameters in widespread WM tracts both in SZ and BD patients compared to HC. The two disorders had WM alterations in the corpus callosum, superior longitudinal fasciculus, internal capsule, external capsule, posterior thalamic radiation, and fornix. However, we observed no differences in GM volume or WM integrity between SZ and BD. The study results suggest that GM volume deficits in the thalamus and insular lobe along with widespread disruptions of WM integrity might be the common neural mechanisms underlying the pathologies of SZ and BD.
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