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Longitudinal associations between white matter maturation and cognitive development across early childhood.

ABSTRACT: From birth to 5 years of age, brain structure matures and evolves alongside emerging cognitive and behavioral abilities. In relating concurrent cognitive functioning and measures of brain structure, a major challenge that has impeded prior investigation of their time-dynamic relationships is the sparse and irregular nature of most longitudinal neuroimaging data. We demonstrate how this problem can be addressed by applying functional concurrent regression models (FCRMs) to longitudinal cognitive and neuroimaging data. The application of FCRM in neuroimaging is illustrated with longitudinal neuroimaging and cognitive data acquired from a large cohort (n = 210) of healthy children, 2-48 months of age. Quantifying white matter myelination by using myelin water fraction (MWF) as imaging metric derived from MRI scans, application of this methodology reveals an early period (200-500 days) during which whole brain and regional white matter structure, as quantified by MWF, is positively associated with cognitive ability, while we found no such association for whole brain white matter volume. Adjusting for baseline covariates including socioeconomic status as measured by maternal education (SES-ME), infant feeding practice, gender, and birth weight further reveals an increasing association between SES-ME and cognitive development with child age. These results shed new light on the emerging patterns of brain and cognitive development, indicating that FCRM provides a useful tool for investigating these evolving relationships.

SUBMITTER: Dai X

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6771612 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Longitudinal associations between white matter maturation and cognitive development across early childhood.

Dai Xiongtao X Hadjipantelis Pantelis P Wang Jane-Ling JL Deoni Sean C L SCL Müller Hans-Georg HG

Human brain mapping 20190612 14

From birth to 5 years of age, brain structure matures and evolves alongside emerging cognitive and behavioral abilities. In relating concurrent cognitive functioning and measures of brain structure, a major challenge that has impeded prior investigation of their time-dynamic relationships is the sparse and irregular nature of most longitudinal neuroimaging data. We demonstrate how this problem can be addressed by applying functional concurrent regression models (FCRMs) to longitudinal cognitive ...[more]

PMID: 31187920

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Project description:ObjectivesWe investigated the domain-specific patterns of the association of segmental brain volume and white matter signal abnormality (WMSA) volume with longitudinal changes in cognitive function.MethodsParticipants from an institutional health check-up program who were aged >50 years, did not have a confirmed central nervous system disorder and underwent baseline and follow-up evaluations for cognitive function and brain MRI with an interval of at least 1 year were included. Cognitive function was assessed using the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease-Korean version (CERAD-K) assessment battery. Performance changes in each cognitive domain were analyzed for associations with serial data of segmental brain volume and WMSA volume.ResultsA total of 190 subjects were included (115 [60.1 %] females, mean age 68.2 ± 8.2 years [range 50-82 years]). Declines in global cognition were associated with lower baseline (P=0.001) and decreasing volumes (P=0.001) of the hippocampus and amygdala and with increasing total WMSA volumes (P=0.008). Declines in the executive function domain were associated with lower baseline volumes of the hippocampus and amygdala (P = 0.018) and with increasing total WMSA volumes (P=0.015). Declines in the language function and the verbal learning domains were associated with lower baseline (P=0.009 and P=0.002, respectively) and decreasing volumes (P=0.008 and P=0.001, respectively) of the hippocampus and amygdala. Decline in the memory recall was associated with higher total WMSA volumes at baseline (P=0.014). Declines in the recognition memory domains were associated with lower baseline hippocampus and amygdala volume (P = 0.020) and with increases in total WMSA volumes (P=0.012).ConclusionsThe segmental brain volume and the WMSA volume parameters have domain-specific associations with longitudinal cognitive changes, which might reflect the different dependence on the brain reserve according to the cognitive domains.

Project description:BackgroundCross-sectional diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging studies suggest that young autistic children have alterations in white matter structure that differ from older autistic individuals. However, it is unclear whether these differences result from atypical neurodevelopment or sampling differences between young and older cohorts. Furthermore, the relationship between altered white matter development and longitudinal changes in autism symptoms is unknown.MethodsUsing longitudinal diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging acquired over 2 to 3 time points between the ages of approximately 2.5 to 7.0 years in 125 autistic children and 69 typically developing control participants, we directly tested the hypothesis that autistic individuals have atypical white matter development across childhood. Additionally, we sought to determine whether changes in white matter diffusion parameters were associated with longitudinal changes in autism severity.ResultsAutistic children were found to have slower development of fractional anisotropy in the cingulum bundle, superior longitudinal fasciculus, internal capsule, and splenium of the corpus callosum. Furthermore, in the sagittal stratum, autistic individuals who increased in autism severity over time had a slower developmental trajectory of fractional anisotropy compared with individuals whose autism decreased in severity. In the uncinate fasciculus, autistic individuals who decreased in autism symptom severity also had greater increases in fractional anisotropy with age.ConclusionsThese longitudinal findings indicate that previously reported differences in diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging measures between younger and older autism cohorts are attributable to an atypical developmental trajectory of white matter. Differences in white matter development between individuals whose autism severity increased, remained stable, or decreased suggest that these functional differences are associated with fiber development in the autistic brain.

Dataset Information

Longitudinal associations between white matter maturation and cognitive development across early childhood.

Publications

Longitudinal associations between white matter maturation and cognitive development across early childhood.

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