Shaofeng Duan

Spatial Patterns of Whole Brain Grey and White Matter Injury in Patients with Occult Spastic Diplegic Cerebral Palsy

Spastic diplegic cerebral palsy(SDCP)is a common type of cerebral palsy (CP), which presents as a group of motor-impairment syndromes. Previous conventional MRI studies have reported abnormal structural changes in SDCP, such as periventricular leucomalacia. However, there are roughly 27.8% SDCP patients presenting normal appearance in conventional MRI, which were considered as occult SDCP. In this study, sixteen patients with occult SDCP and 16 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects were collected and the data were acquired on a 3T MR system. We applied voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analysis to investigate whole brain grey and white matter injury in occult SDCP. By using VBM method, the grey matter volume reduction was revealed in the bilateral basal ganglia regions, thalamus, insula, and left cerebral peduncle, whereas the white matter atrophy was found to be located in the posterior part of corpus callosum and right posterior corona radiata in the occult SDCP patients. By using TBSS, reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) values were detected in multiple white matter regions, including bilateral white matter tracts in prefrontal lobe, temporal lobe, internal and external capsule, corpus callosum, cingulum, thalamus, brainstem and cerebellum. Additionally, several regions of white matter tracts injury were found to be significantly correlated with motor dysfunction. These results collectively revealed the spatial patterns of whole brain grey and white matter injury in occult SDCP.

Functionally Brain Network Connected to the Retrosplenial Cortex of Rats Revealed by 7T fMRI

Functional networks are regarded as important mechanisms for increasing our understanding of brain function in healthy and diseased states, and increased interest has been focused on extending the study of functional networks to animal models because such models provide a functional understanding of disease progression, therapy and repair. In rodents, the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is an important cortical region because it has a large size and presents transitional patterns of lamination between the neocortex and archicortex. In addition, a number of invasive studies have highlighted the importance of the RSC for many functions. However, the network based on the RSC in rodents remains unclear. Based on the critical importance of the RSC, we defined the bilateral RSCs as two regions of interest and estimated the network based on the RSC. The results showed that the related regions include the parietal association cortex, hippocampus, thalamus nucleus, midbrain structures, and hypothalamic mammillary bodies. Our findings indicate two possible major networks: a sensory-cognitive network that has a hub in the RSCs and processes sensory information, spatial learning, and episodic memory; and a second network that is involved in the regulation of visceral functions and arousal. In addition, functional asymmetry between the bilateral RSCs was observed.

An Automatic Method for Generating an Unbiased Intensity Normalizing Factor in Positron Emission Tomography Image Analysis After Stroke

Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of functional metabolism has been widely used to investigate functional recovery and to evaluate therapeutic efficacy after stroke. The voxel intensity of a PET image is the most important indicator of cellular activity, but is affected by other factors such as the basal metabolic ratio of each subject. In order to locate dysfunctional regions accurately, intensity normalization by a scale factor is a prerequisite in the data analysis, for which the global mean value is most widely used. However, this is unsuitable for stroke studies. Alternatively, a specified scale factor calculated from a reference region is also used, comprising neither hyper- nor hypo-metabolic voxels. But there is no such recognized reference region for stroke studies. Therefore, we proposed a totally data-driven automatic method for unbiased scale factor generation. This factor was generated iteratively until the residual deviation of two adjacent scale factors was reduced by <xa05%. Moreover, both simulated and real stroke data were used for evaluation, and these suggested that our proposed unbiased scale factor has better sensitivity and accuracy for stroke studies.

Altered regional and circuit resting-state activity in patients with occult spastic diplegic cerebral palsy

BACKGROUNDnVery few studies have been made to investigate functional activity changes in occult spastic diplegic cerebral palsy (SDCP). The purpose of this study was to analyze whole-brain resting state regional brain activity and functional connectivity (FC) changes in patients with SDCP.nnnMETHODSnWe examined 12 occult SDCP and 14 healthy control subjects using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. The data were analyzed using Resting-State fMRI Data Analysis Toolkit (REST) software. The regional homogeneity (ReHo), amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF), and whole brain FC of the motor cortex and thalamus were analyzed and compared between the occult SDCP and control groups.nnnRESULTSnCompared with the control group, the occult SDCP group showed decreased ReHo regions, including the bilateral frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes, the cerebellum, right cingulate gyrus, and right lenticular nucleus, whereas an increased ReHo value was observed in the left precuneus, calcarine, fusiform gyrus, and right precuneus. Compared with the control group, no significant differences in ALFF were noted in the occult SDCP group. With the motor cortex as the region of interest, the occult SDCP group showed decreased connectivity regions in the bilateral fusiform and lingual gyrus, but increased connectivity regions in the contralateral precentral and postcentral gyrus, supplementary motor area, and the ipsilateral postcentral gyrus. With the thalamus being regarded as the region of interest, the occult SDCP group showed decreased connectivity regions in the bilateral basal ganglia, cingulate, and prefrontal cortex, but increased connectivity regions in the bilateral precentral gyrus, the contralateral cerebellum, and inferior temporal gyrus.nnnCONCLUSIONSnResting-state regional brain activities and FC changes in the patients with occult SDCP exhibited a special distribution pattern, which is consistent with the pathology of the disease.

Rat brain digital stereotaxic white matter atlas with fine tract delineation in Paxinos space and its automated applications in DTI data analysis

PURPOSEnTo automatically analyze diffusion tensor images of the rat brain via both voxel-based and ROI-based approaches, we constructed a new white matter atlas of the rat brain with fine tracts delineation in the Paxinos and Watson space.nnnMATERIALS AND METHODSnUnlike in previous studies, we constructed a digital atlas image from the latest edition of the Paxinos and Watson. This atlas contains 111 carefully delineated white matter fibers. A white matter network of rat brain based on anatomy was constructed by locating the intersection of all these tracts and recording the nuclei on the pathway of each white matter tract. Moreover, a compatible rat brain template from DTI images was created and standardized into the atlas space. To evaluate the automated application of the atlas in DTI data analysis, a group of rats with right-side middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) and those without were enrolled in this study.nnnRESULTSnThe voxel-based analysis result shows that the brain region showing significant declines in signal in the MCAO rats was consistent with the occlusion position.nnnCONCLUSIONnWe constructed a stereotaxic white matter atlas of the rat brain with fine tract delineation and a compatible template for the data analysis of DTI images of the rat brain.

Sleeve Gastrectomy Recovering Disordered Brain Function in Subjects with Obesity: a Longitudinal fMRI Study

ObjectiveBariatric surgery could recover regional dysfunction of cerebral cortex. However, it is unknown whether bariatric surgery could recover the global-level dysfunction in subjects with obesity. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of bariatric surgery on global-level dysfunction in subjects with obesity by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).MethodsResting-state fMRI was used to investigate dysfunction of whole-brain in 34 subjects with obesity and 34 age-and gender-matched normal-weight subjects, in which 17 subjects with obesity received sleeve gastrectomy. Fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) and functional connectivity (FC) among the whole brain were used to estimate the brain functional differences among the preoperative subjects, postoperative subjects, and the controls.ResultsThe preoperative subjects compared to controls had decreased resting-state activities in reward processing and cognitive control regions such as orbitofrontal cortex, middle frontal gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, and gyrus rectus. It was important that increased FC was also found in these regions. Correlation analysis showed that body mass index (BMI) was associated with these decreased activity and increased FC. More importantly, the dysfunction in these regions was recovered by the bariatric surgery.ConclusionsThese results suggest that bariatric surgery-induced weight loss could reverse the global-level dysfunction in subjects with obesity. The dysfunction in these regions might play a key role in the development of obesity, which might serve as a biomarker in the treatment of obesity.

Structural and functional brain network of human retrosplenial cortex

Retrosplenial cortex (RSC) plays a key role in various cognitive functions. The fiber connectivity of RSC had been reported in rodent and primate studies by tracer injection methods To explore structural and functional connectivity of two sub-regions of RSC, Brodmann area (BA)29 and BA30, we constructed fiber connectivity networks of two sub-regions by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractography based on diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and functional connectivity networks by resting-state functional MRI. The BA29 network showed fiber connections with auditory cortex and functional connections with BA21. Both fiber and functional connections show that BA30 network includes visual cortex. Furthermore, BA30 had fiber connections with hippocampus, thalamus, and prefrontal cortex. We suggest that (1) structural connectivity reflects functional connectivity in some degree. (2) BA29 mainly received and processed sound information from auditory cortex, while BA30 mainly received and processed scene information from visual cortex.

Abnormal Metabolic Connectivity in Rats at the Acute Stage of Ischemic Stroke

Stroke at the acute stage is a major cause of disability in adults, and is associated with dysfunction of brain networks. However, the mechanisms underlying changes in brain connectivity in stroke are far from fully elucidated. In the present study, we investigated brain metabolism and metabolic connectivity in a rat ischemic stroke model of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) at the acute stage using 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography. Voxel-wise analysis showed decreased metabolism mainly in the ipsilesional hemisphere, and increased metabolism mainly in the contralesional cerebellum. We used further metabolic connectivity analysis to explore the brain metabolic network in MCAO. Compared to sham controls, rats with MCAO showed most significantly reduced nodal and local efficiency in the ipsilesional striatum. In addition, the MCAO group showed decreased metabolic central connection of the ipsilesional striatum with the ipsilesional cerebellum, ipsilesional hippocampus, and bilateral hypothalamus. Taken together, the present study demonstrated abnormal metabolic connectivity in rats at the acute stage of ischemic stroke, which might provide insight into clinical research.

Stereotaxic 18F-FDG PET and MRI templates with three-dimensional digital atlas for statistical parametric mapping analysis of tree shrew brain

BACKGROUNDnTree shrews are proposed as an alternative animal model to nonhuman primates due to their close affinity to primates. Neuroimaging techniques are widely used to study brain functions and structures of humans and animals. However, tree shrews are rarely applied in neuroimaging field partly due to the lack of available species specific analysis methods.nnnNEW METHODnIn this study, 10 PET/CT and 10 MRI images of tree shrew brain were used to construct PET and MRI templates; based on histological atlas we reconstructed a three-dimensional digital atlas with 628 structures delineated; then the digital atlas and templates were aligned into a stereotaxic space. Finally, we integrated the digital atlas and templates into a toolbox for tree shrew brain spatial normalization, statistical analysis and results localization.nnnRESULTSnWe validated the feasibility of the toolbox by simulated data with lesions in laterodorsal thalamic nucleus (LD). The lesion volumes of simulated PET and MRI images were (12.97±3.91)mm3 and (7.04±0.84)mm3. Statistical results at p<0.005 showed the lesion volumes of PET and MRI were 13.18mm3 and 8.06mm3 in LD.nnnCOMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHOD(S)nTo our knowledge, we report the first PET template and digital atlas of tree shrew brain. Compared to the existing MRI templates, our MRI template was aligned into stereotaxic space. And the toolbox is the first software dedicated for tree shrew brain analysis.nnnCONCLUSIONSnThe templates and digital atlas of tree shrew brain, as well as the toolbox, facilitate the use of tree shrews in neuroimaging field.