Dataset Information

Hippocampal gray matter volume in bilateral vestibular failure.

ABSTRACT: Bilateral vestibular failure (BVF) is a severe chronic disorder of the labyrinth or the eighth cranial nerve characterized by unsteadiness of gait and disabling oscillopsia during head movements. According to animal data, vestibular input to the hippocampus is proposed to contribute to spatial memory and spatial navigation. Except for one seminal study showing the association of impaired spatial navigation and hippocampal atrophy, patient data in BVF are lacking. Therefore, we performed a voxel-wise comparison of the hippocampal gray matter volume (GMV) in a clinically representative sample of 27 patients with incomplete BVF and 29 age- and gender-matched healthy controls to test the hypothesis of hippocampal atrophy in BVF. Although the two groups did not generally differ in their hippocampal GMV, a reduction of GMV in the bilateral hippocampal CA3 region was significantly correlated with increased vestibulopathy-related clinical impairment. We propose that GMV reduction in the hippocampus of BVF patients is related to the severity of vestibular-induced disability which is in line with combined hippocampal atrophy and disorders of spatial navigation in complete vestibular deafferentation due to bilateral nerve section. Clinically, however, the most frequent etiologies of BVF cause incomplete lesions. Accordingly, hippocampus atrophy and deficits in spatial navigation occur possibly less frequently than previously suspected. Hum Brain Mapp 37:1998-2006, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

SUBMITTER: Gottlich M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6867258 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Hippocampal gray matter volume in bilateral vestibular failure.

Göttlich Martin M Jandl Nico M NM Sprenger Andreas A Wojak Jann F JF Münte Thomas F TF Krämer Ulrike M UM Helmchen Christoph C

Human brain mapping 20160226 5

Bilateral vestibular failure (BVF) is a severe chronic disorder of the labyrinth or the eighth cranial nerve characterized by unsteadiness of gait and disabling oscillopsia during head movements. According to animal data, vestibular input to the hippocampus is proposed to contribute to spatial memory and spatial navigation. Except for one seminal study showing the association of impaired spatial navigation and hippocampal atrophy, patient data in BVF are lacking. Therefore, we performed a voxel- ...[more]

PMID: 26918638

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Project description:BackgroundDespite decades of research, there is continued uncertainty regarding whether autism is associated with a specific profile of gray matter (GM) structure. This inconsistency may stem from the widespread use of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) methods that combine indices of GM density and GM volume. If GM density or volume, but not both, prove different in autism, the traditional VBM approach of combining the two indices may obscure the difference. The present study measures GM density and volume separately to examine whether autism is associated with alterations in GM volume, density, or both.MethodsDifferences in MRI-based GM density and volume were examined in 6-25 year-olds with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (n = 213, 80.8% male, IQ 47-154) and a typically developing (TD) sample (n = 190, 71.6% male, IQ 67-155). High-resolution T1-weighted anatomical images were collected on a single MRI scanner. Regional density and volume were estimated via whole-brain parcellation comprised of 1625 parcels. Parcel-wise analyses were conducted using generalized additive models while controlling the false discovery rate (FDR, q < 0.05). Volume differences in the 68-region Desikan-Killiany atlas derived from Freesurfer were also examined, to establish the generalizability of findings across methods.ResultsNo density differences were observed between the autistic and TD groups, either in individual parcels or whole brain mean density. Increased volume was observed in autism compared to the TD group when controlling for Age, Sex, and IQ, both at the level of the whole brain (total volume) and in 45 parcels (2.8% of total parcels). Parcels with greater volume included inferior, middle, and superior temporal gyrus, inferior and superior frontal gyrus, precuneus, and fusiform gyrus. Converging evidence from a standard Freesurfer pipeline also identified greater volume in a number of overlapping regions.LimitationsThe method for determining "density" is not a direct measure of neuronal density, and this study cannot reveal underlying cellular differences. While this study represents possibly the largest single-site sample of its kind, it is underpowered to detect very small differences.ConclusionsThese results provide compelling evidence that autism is associated with regional GM volumetric differences, which are more prominent than density differences. This underscores the importance of examining volume and density separately, and suggests that direct measures of volume (e.g. region-of-interest or tensor-based morphometry approaches) may be more sensitive to autism-relevant differences in neuroanatomy than concentration/density-based approaches.

Dataset Information

Hippocampal gray matter volume in bilateral vestibular failure.

Publications

Hippocampal gray matter volume in bilateral vestibular failure.

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