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1.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A ; 119(34): e2202515119, 2022 08 23.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35981139

ABSTRACT

Marital attachment plays an important role in maintaining intimate personal relationships and sustaining psychological well-being. Mate-selection theories suggest that people are more likely to marry someone with a similar personality and social status, yet evidence for the association between personality-based couple similarity measures and marital satisfaction has been inconsistent. A more direct and useful approach for understanding fundamental processes underlying marital satisfaction is to probe similarity of dynamic brain responses to maritally and socially relevant communicative cues, which may better reflect how married couples process information in real time and make sense of their mates and themselves. Here, we investigate shared neural representations based on intersubject synchronization (ISS) of brain responses during free viewing of marital life-related, and nonmarital, object-related movies. Compared to randomly selected pairs of couples, married couples showed significantly higher levels of ISS during viewing of marital movies and ISS between married couples predicted higher levels of marital satisfaction. ISS in the default mode network emerged as a strong predictor of marital satisfaction and canonical correlation analysis revealed a specific relation between ISS in this network and shared communication and egalitarian components of martial satisfaction. Our findings demonstrate that brain similarities that reflect real-time mental responses to subjective perceptions, thoughts, and feelings about interpersonal and social interactions are strong predictors of marital satisfaction, reflecting shared values and beliefs. Our study advances foundational knowledge of the neurobiological basis of human pair bonding.


Subject(s)
Brain , Marriage , Personal Satisfaction , Brain/physiology , Communication , Humans , Interpersonal Relations , Marriage/psychology , Personality , Spouses/psychology
2.
Cereb Cortex ; 33(10): 6354-6365, 2023 05 09.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36627243

ABSTRACT

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a common anxiety disorder experiencing psychological and somatic symptoms. Here, we explored the link between the individual variation in functional connectome and anxiety symptoms, especially psychological and somatic dimensions, which remains unknown. In a sample of 118 GAD patients and matched 85 healthy controls (HCs), we used multivariate distance-based matrix regression to examine the relationship between resting-state functional connectivity (FC) and the severity of anxiety. We identified multiple hub regions belonging to salience network (SN) and default mode network (DMN) where dysconnectivity associated with anxiety symptoms (P < 0.05, false discovery rate [FDR]-corrected). Follow-up analyses revealed that patient's psychological anxiety was dominated by the hyper-connectivity within DMN, whereas the somatic anxiety could be modulated by hyper-connectivity within SN and DMN. Moreover, hypo-connectivity between SN and DMN were related to both anxiety dimensions. Furthermore, GAD patients showed significant network-level FC changes compared with HCs (P < 0.01, FDR-corrected). Finally, we found the connectivity of DMN could predict the individual psychological symptom in an independent GAD sample. Together, our work emphasizes the potential dissociable roles of SN and DMN in the pathophysiology of GAD's anxiety symptoms, which may be crucial in providing a promising neuroimaging biomarker for novel personalized treatment strategies.


Subject(s)
Connectome , Humans , Connectome/methods , Default Mode Network , Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods , Anxiety Disorders/diagnostic imaging , Brain/diagnostic imaging
3.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38861168

ABSTRACT

Although it is well recognized that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with atypical dynamic functional connectivity patterns, the dynamic changes in brain intrinsic activity over each time point and the potential molecular mechanisms associated with atypical dynamic temporal characteristics in ASD remain unclear. Here, we employed the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) to explore the atypical neural configuration at every scanning time point in ASD, based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange. Subsequently, partial least squares regression and pathway enrichment analysis were employed to explore the potential molecular mechanism associated with atypical neural dynamics in ASD. 8 HMM states were inferred from rs-fMRI data. Compared to typically developing, individuals on the autism spectrum showed atypical state-specific temporal characteristics, including number of states and occurrences, mean life time and transition probability between states. Moreover, these atypical temporal characteristics could predict communication difficulties of ASD, and states assoicated with negative activation in default mode network and frontoparietal network, and positive activation in somatomotor network, ventral attention network, and limbic network, had higher predictive contribution. Furthermore, a total of 321 genes was revealed to be significantly associated with atypical dynamic brain states of ASD, and these genes are mainly enriched in neurodevelopmental pathways. Our study provides new insights into characterizing the atypical neural dynamics from a moment-to-moment perspective, and indicates a linkage between atypical neural configuration and gene expression in ASD.

4.
Hum Brain Mapp ; 44(1): 258-268, 2023 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35822559

ABSTRACT

Studies have reported that different brain regions/connections possess distinct frequency properties, which are related to brain function. Previous studies have proposed altered brain activity frequency and frequency-specific functional connectivity (FC) patterns in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), implying the varied dominant frequency of FC in ASD. However, the difference of the dominant frequency of FC between ASD and healthy controls (HCs) remains unclear. In the present study, the dominant frequency of FC was measured by FC optimal frequency, which was defined as the intermediate of the frequency bin at which the FC strength could reach the maximum. A multivariate pattern analysis was conducted to determine whether the FC optimal frequency in ASD differs from that in HCs. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) and enrichment analyses were conducted to determine the relationship between the FC optimal frequency difference of ASD/HCs and cortical gene expression. PLSR analyses were also performed to explore the relationship between FC optimal frequency and the clinical symptoms of ASD. Results showed a significant difference of FC optimal frequency between ASD and HCs. Some genes whose cortical expression patterns are related to the FC optimal frequency difference of ASD/HCs were enriched for social communication problems. Meanwhile, the FC optimal frequency in ASD was significantly related to social communication symptoms. These results may help us understand the neuro-mechanism of the social communication deficits in ASD.


Subject(s)
Autism Spectrum Disorder , Autistic Disorder , Humans , Autism Spectrum Disorder/diagnostic imaging , Autism Spectrum Disorder/genetics , Brain Mapping/methods , Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods , Neural Pathways/diagnostic imaging , Brain/diagnostic imaging , Communication , Gene Expression
5.
Cereb Cortex ; 32(6): 1307-1317, 2022 03 04.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34416760

ABSTRACT

Literatures have reported considerable heterogeneity with atypical functional connectivity (FC) pattern of psychiatric disorders. However, traditional statistical methods are hard to explore this heterogeneity pattern. We proposed a "brain dimension" method to describe the atypical FC patterns of major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder (BD). The approach was firstly applied to a simulation dataset. It was then utilized to a real resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging dataset of 47 individuals with major depressive disorder, 32 individuals with BD, and 52 well matched health controls. Our method showed a better ability to extract the FC dimensions than traditional methods. The results of the real dataset revealed atypical FC dimensions for major depressive disorder and BD. Especially, an atypical FC dimension which exhibited decreased FC strength of thalamus and basal ganglia was found with higher severity level of individuals with BD than the ones with major depressive disorder. This study provided a novel "brain dimension" method to view the atypical FC patterns of major depressive disorder and BD and revealed shared and specific atypical FC patterns between major depressive disorder and BD.


Subject(s)
Bipolar Disorder , Depressive Disorder, Major , Bipolar Disorder/diagnostic imaging , Brain/diagnostic imaging , Depression , Depressive Disorder, Major/diagnostic imaging , Humans , Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods
6.
Neuroimage ; 263: 119618, 2022 11.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36087902

ABSTRACT

Much recent attention has been directed toward investigating the spatial and temporal organization of brain dynamics, but the rules which constrain the variation of spatio-temporal organization in functional connectivity under different brain states remain unclear. Here, we developed a novel computational approach based on tensor decomposition and regularization to represent dynamic functional connectivity as a linear combination of dynamic modules and time-varying weights. In this approach, dynamic modules represent co-activating functional connectivity patterns, and time-varying weights represent the temporal expression of dynamic modules. We applied this dynamic decomposition model (DDM) on a resting-state fMRI dataset and found that whole-brain dynamic functional connectivity can be decomposed as a linear combination of eight dynamic modules which we summarize as 'high order modules' and 'primary-high order modules', according to their spatial attributes and correspondence with existing intrinsic functional brain networks. By clustering the time-varying weights, we identified five brain states including three major states and two minor states. We found that state transitions mainly occurred between the three major states, and that temporal variation of dynamic modules may contribute to brain state transitions. We then conceptualized the variability of weights as the flexibility of the corresponding dynamic modules and found that different dynamic modules exhibit different amounts of flexibility and contribute to different cognitive measures. Finally, we applied DDM to a schizophrenia resting-state fMRI dataset and found that atypical flexibility of dynamic modules correlates with impaired cognitive flexibility in schizophrenia. Overall, this work provides a quantitative framework that characterizes temporal variation in the topology of dynamic functional connectivity.


Subject(s)
Brain , Schizophrenia , Humans , Brain/diagnostic imaging , Brain Mapping , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Mental Processes
7.
Hum Brain Mapp ; 43(15): 4722-4732, 2022 10 15.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35781734

ABSTRACT

Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) approaches provide informative estimates of the functional architecture of the brain, and recently-proposed cofluctuation analysis temporally unwraps FC at every moment in time, providing refined information for quantifying brain dynamics. As a brain network disorder, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was characterized by substantial alteration in FC, but the contribution of moment-to-moment-activity cofluctuations to the overall dysfunctional connectivity pattern in ASD remains poorly understood. Here, we used the cofluctuation approach to explore the underlying dynamic properties of FC in ASD, using a large multisite resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) dataset (ASD = 354, typically developing controls [TD] = 446). Our results verified that the networks estimated using high-amplitude frames were highly correlated with the traditional rsFC. Moreover, these frames showed higher average amplitudes in participants with ASD than those in the TD group. Principal component analysis was performed on the activity patterns in these frames and aggregated over all subjects. The first principal component (PC1) corresponds to the default mode network (DMN), and the PC1 coefficients were greater in participants with ASD than those in the TD group. Additionally, increased ASD symptom severity was associated with the increased coefficients, which may result in excessive internally oriented cognition and social cognition deficits in individuals with ASD. Our finding highlights the utility of cofluctuation approaches in prevalent neurodevelopmental disorders and verifies that the aberrant contribution of DMN to rsFC may underline the symptomatology in adolescents and youths with ASD.


Subject(s)
Autism Spectrum Disorder , Brain Diseases , Adolescent , Autism Spectrum Disorder/diagnostic imaging , Brain/diagnostic imaging , Brain Mapping/methods , Default Mode Network , Humans , Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods , Neural Pathways/diagnostic imaging
8.
Cereb Cortex ; 31(8): 3899-3910, 2021 07 05.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33791779

ABSTRACT

Much recent attention has been directed toward elucidating the structure of social interaction-communication dimensions and whether and how these symptom dimensions coalesce with each other in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the underlying neurobiological basis of these symptom dimensions is unknown, especially the association of social interaction and communication dimensions with brain networks. Here, we proposed a method of whole-brain network-based regression to identify the functional networks linked to these symptom dimensions in a large sample of children with ASD. Connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM) was established to explore neurobiological evidence that supports the merging of communication and social interaction deficits into one symptom dimension (social/communication deficits). Results showed that the default mode network plays a core role in communication and social interaction dimensions. A primary sensory perceptual network mainly contributed to communication deficits, and high-level cognitive networks mainly contributed to social interaction deficits. CPM revealed that the functional networks associated with these symptom dimensions can predict the merged dimension of social/communication deficits. These findings delineate a link between brain functional networks and symptom dimensions for social interaction and communication and further provide neurobiological evidence supporting the merging of communication and social interaction deficits into one symptom dimension.


Subject(s)
Autism Spectrum Disorder/diagnostic imaging , Autism Spectrum Disorder/psychology , Communication , Nerve Net/physiopathology , Social Behavior , Autism Spectrum Disorder/physiopathology , Brain Mapping , Child , Connectome , Female , Humans , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Male , Models, Neurological , Nerve Net/diagnostic imaging , Neural Pathways , Neuropsychological Tests , Social Interaction
9.
Cereb Cortex ; 31(3): 1500-1510, 2021 02 05.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33123725

ABSTRACT

Autism spectrum disorder is an early-onset neurodevelopmental condition. This study aimed to investigate the progressive structural alterations in the autistic brain during early childhood. Structural magnetic resonance imaging scans were examined in a cross-sectional sample of 67 autistic children and 63 demographically matched typically developing (TD) children, aged 2-7 years. Voxel-based morphometry and a general linear model were used to ascertain the effects of diagnosis, age, and a diagnosis-by-age interaction on the gray matter volume. Causal structural covariance network analysis was performed to map the interregional influences of brain structural alterations with increasing age. The autism group showed spatially distributed increases in gray matter volume when controlling for age-related effects, compared with TD children. A significant diagnosis-by-age interaction effect was observed in the fusiform face area (FFA, Fpeak = 13.57) and cerebellum/vermis (Fpeak = 12.73). Compared with TD children, the gray matter development of the FFA in autism displayed altered influences on that of the social brain network regions (false discovery rate corrected, P < 0.05). Our findings indicate the atypical neurodevelopment of the FFA in the autistic brain during early childhood and highlight altered developmental effects of this region on the social brain network.


Subject(s)
Autism Spectrum Disorder/pathology , Brain Mapping/methods , Brain/pathology , Gray Matter/pathology , Child , Child, Preschool , Cross-Sectional Studies , Female , Humans , Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Male
10.
Hum Brain Mapp ; 42(10): 3282-3294, 2021 07.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33934442

ABSTRACT

Individual-based morphological brain networks built from T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reflect synchronous maturation intensities between anatomical regions at the individual level. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a socio-cognitive and neurodevelopmental disorder with high neuroanatomical heterogeneity, but the specific patterns of morphological networks in ASD remain largely unexplored at the individual level. In this study, individual-based morphological networks were constructed by using high-resolution structural MRI data from 40 young children with ASD (age range: 2-8 years) and 38 age-, gender-, and handedness-matched typically developing children (TDC). Measurements were recorded as threefold. Results showed that compared with TDC, young children with ASD exhibited lower values of small-worldness (i.e., σ) of individual-level morphological brain networks, increased morphological connectivity in cortico-striatum-thalamic-cortical (CSTC) circuitry, and decreased morphological connectivity in the cortico-cortical network. In addition, morphological connectivity abnormalities can predict the severity of social communication deficits in young children with ASD, thus confirming an associational impact at the behavioral level. These findings suggest that the morphological brain network in the autistic developmental brain is inefficient in segregating and distributing information. The results also highlight the crucial role of abnormal morphological connectivity patterns in the socio-cognitive deficits of ASD and support the possible use of the aberrant developmental patterns of morphological brain networks in revealing new clinically-relevant biomarkers for ASD.


Subject(s)
Autism Spectrum Disorder/pathology , Autism Spectrum Disorder/physiopathology , Cerebrum/pathology , Nerve Net/pathology , Thalamus/pathology , Autism Spectrum Disorder/diagnostic imaging , Cerebrum/diagnostic imaging , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Male , Nerve Net/diagnostic imaging , Thalamus/diagnostic imaging
11.
Cereb Cortex ; 30(9): 5028-5037, 2020 07 30.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32377684

ABSTRACT

Accumulating neuroimaging evidence shows that age estimation obtained from brain connectomics reflects the level of brain maturation along with neural development. It is well known that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) alters neurodevelopmental trajectories of brain connectomics, but the precise relationship between chronological age (ChA) and brain connectome age (BCA) during development in ASD has not been addressed. This study uses neuroimaging data collected from 50 individuals with ASD and 47 age- and gender-matched typically developing controls (TDCs; age range: 5-18 years). Both functional and structural connectomics were assessed using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging data from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange repository. For each participant, BCA was estimated from structure-function connectomics through linear support vector regression. We found that BCA matched well with ChA in TDC children and adolescents, but not in ASD. In particular, our findings revealed that individuals with ASD exhibited accelerated brain maturation in youth, followed by a delay of brain development starting at preadolescence. Our results highlight the critical role of BCA in understanding aberrant developmental trajectories in ASD and provide the new insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms of this disorder.


Subject(s)
Autism Spectrum Disorder/physiopathology , Brain/physiopathology , Connectome , Adolescent , Child , Child, Preschool , Diffusion Tensor Imaging , Female , Humans , Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted , Male
12.
Hum Brain Mapp ; 41(2): 419-428, 2020 02 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31600014

ABSTRACT

Emerging evidence has associated autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with static functional connectivity abnormalities between multiple brain regions. However, the temporal dynamics of intra- and interhemispheric functional connectivity patterns remain unknown in ASD. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data were analyzed for 105 ASD and 102 demographically matched typically developing control (TC) children (age range: 7-12 years) available from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange database. Whole-brain functional connectivity was decomposed into ipsilateral and contralateral functional connectivity, and sliding-window analysis was utilized to capture the intra- and interhemispheric dynamic functional connectivity density (dFCD) patterns. The temporal variability of the functional connectivity dynamics was further quantified using the standard deviation (SD) of intra- and interhemispheric dFCD across time. Finally, a support vector regression model was constructed to assess the relationship between abnormal dFCD variance and autism symptom severity. Both intra- and interhemispheric comparisons showed increased dFCD variability in the anterior cingulate cortex/medial prefrontal cortex and decreased variability in the fusiform gyrus/inferior temporal gyrus in autistic children compared with TC children. Autistic children additionally showed lower intrahemispheric dFCD variability in sensorimotor regions including the precentral/postcentral gyrus. Moreover, aberrant temporal variability of the contralateral dFCD predicted the severity of social communication impairments in autistic children. These findings demonstrate altered temporal dynamics of the intra- and interhemispheric functional connectivity in brain regions incorporating social brain network of ASD, and highlight the potential role of abnormal interhemispheric communication dynamics in neural substrates underlying impaired social processing in ASD.


Subject(s)
Autism Spectrum Disorder/physiopathology , Cerebral Cortex/physiopathology , Connectome , Nerve Net/physiopathology , Social Perception , Social Skills , Autism Spectrum Disorder/diagnostic imaging , Cerebral Cortex/diagnostic imaging , Child , Humans , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Male , Nerve Net/diagnostic imaging , Severity of Illness Index
13.
Hum Brain Mapp ; 41(1): 230-240, 2020 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31571346

ABSTRACT

Schizophrenia has been conceptualized as a disorder arising from structurally pathological alterations to white-matter fibers in the brain. However, few studies have focused on white-matter functional changes in schizophrenia. Considering that converging evidence suggests that white-matter resting state functional MRI (rsfMRI) signals can effectively depict neuronal activity and psychopathological status, this study examined white-matter network-level interactions in antipsychotic-naive first-episode schizophrenia (FES) to facilitate the interpretation of the psychiatric pathological mechanisms in schizophrenia. We recruited 42 FES patients (FESs) and 38 healthy controls (HCs), all of whom underwent rsfMRI. We identified 11 white-matter functional networks, which could be further classified into deep, middle, and superficial layers of networks. We then examined network-level interactions among these 11 white-matter functional networks using coefficient Granger causality analysis. We employed group comparisons on the influences among 11 networks using network-based statistic. Excitatory influences from the middle superior corona radiate network to the superficial orbitofrontal and deep networks were disrupted in FESs compared with HCs. Additionally, an extra failure of suppression within superficial networks (including the frontoparietal network, temporofrontal network, and the orbitofrontal network) was observed in FESs. We additionally recruited an independent cohort (13 FESs and 13 HCs) from another center to examine the replicability of our findings across centers. Similar replication results further verified the white-matter functional network interaction model of schizophrenia. The novel findings of impaired interactions among white-matter functional networks in schizophrenia indicate that the pathophysiology of schizophrenia may also lie in white-matter functional abnormalities.


Subject(s)
Cerebral Cortex/physiopathology , Connectome , Nerve Net/physiopathology , Schizophrenia/physiopathology , White Matter/physiopathology , Adult , Cerebral Cortex/diagnostic imaging , Female , Humans , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Male , Nerve Net/diagnostic imaging , Schizophrenia/diagnostic imaging , White Matter/diagnostic imaging , Young Adult
14.
Hum Brain Mapp ; 2020 Dec 02.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33289223

ABSTRACT

Even with an overarching functional dysconnectivity model of adolescent-onset schizophrenia (AOS), there have been no functional connectome (FC) biomarkers identified for predicting patients' specific symptom domains. Adolescence is a period of dramatic brain maturation, with substantial interindividual variability in brain anatomy. However, existing group-level hypotheses of AOS lack precision in terms of neuroanatomical boundaries. This study aimed to identify individual-specific FC biomarkers associated with schizophrenic symptom manifestation during adolescent brain maturation. We used a reliable individual-level cortical parcellation approach to map functional brain regions in each subject, that were then used to identify FC biomarkers for predicting dimension-specific psychotic symptoms in 30 antipsychotic-naïve first-episode AOS patients (recruited sample of 39). Age-related changes in biomarker expression were compared between these patients and 31 healthy controls. Moreover, 29 antipsychotic-naïve first-episode AOS patients (analyzed sample of 25) were recruited from another center to test the generalizability of the prediction model. Individual-specific FC biomarkers could significantly and better predict AOS positive-dimension symptoms with a relatively stronger generalizability than at the group level. Specifically, positive symptom domains were estimated based on connections between the frontoparietal control network (FPN) and salience network and within FPN. Consistent with the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia, the FPN-SN connection exhibited aberrant age-associated alteration in AOS. The individual-level findings reveal reproducible FPN-based FC biomarkers associated with AOS positive symptom domains, and highlight the importance of accounting for individual variation in the study of adolescent-onset disorders.

15.
Hum Brain Mapp ; 40(4): 1264-1275, 2019 03.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-30367744

ABSTRACT

Time-invariant resting-state functional connectivity studies have illuminated the crucial role of the right anterior insula (rAI) in prominent social impairments of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, a recent dynamic connectivity study demonstrated that rather than being stationary, functional connectivity patterns of the rAI vary significantly across time. The present study aimed to explore the differences in functional connectivity in dynamic states of the rAI between individuals with ASD and typically developing controls (TD). Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data obtained from a publicly available database were analyzed in 209 individuals with ASD and 298 demographically matched controls. A k-means clustering algorithm was utilized to obtain five dynamic states of functional connectivity of the rAI. The temporal properties, frequency properties, and meta-analytic decoding were first identified in TD group to obtain the characteristics of each rAI dynamic state. Multivariate analysis of variance was then performed to compare the functional connectivity patterns of the rAI between ASD and TD groups in obtained states. Significantly impaired connectivity was observed in ASD in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex, which are two critical hubs of the default mode network (DMN). States in which ASD showed decreased connectivity between the rAI and these regions were those more relevant to socio-cognitive processing. From a dynamic perspective, these findings demonstrate partially impaired resting-state functional connectivity patterns between the rAI and DMN across states in ASD, and provide novel insights into the neural mechanisms underlying social impairments in individuals with ASD.


Subject(s)
Autism Spectrum Disorder/physiopathology , Cerebral Cortex/physiopathology , Neural Pathways/physiopathology , Adolescent , Brain Mapping/methods , Child , Humans , Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods , Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods , Rest/physiology
16.
Hum Brain Mapp ; 40(15): 4331-4344, 2019 10 15.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31276262

ABSTRACT

A major challenge in neuroscience is understanding how brain function emerges from the connectome. Most current methods have focused on quantifying functional connectomes in gray-matter (GM) signals obtained from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), while signals from white-matter (WM) have generally been excluded as noise. In this study, we derived a functional connectome from WM resting-state blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD)-fMRI signals from a large cohort (n = 488). The WM functional connectome exhibited weak small-world topology and nonrandom modularity. We also found a long-term (i.e., over 10 months) topological reliability, with topological reproducibility within different brain parcellation strategies, spatial distance effect, global and cerebrospinal fluid signals regression or not. Furthermore, the small-worldness was positively correlated with individuals' intelligence values (r = .17, pcorrected = .0009). The current findings offer initial evidence using WM connectome and present additional measures by which to uncover WM functional information in both healthy individuals and in cases of clinical disease.


Subject(s)
Connectome/methods , Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods , Nerve Net/physiology , Neural Pathways/physiology , White Matter/physiology , Adolescent , Adult , Area Under Curve , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Gray Matter/anatomy & histology , Gray Matter/physiology , Humans , Intelligence , Male , Nerve Net/anatomy & histology , Oxygen/blood , Reference Values , Reproducibility of Results , White Matter/anatomy & histology , Young Adult
17.
Hum Brain Mapp ; 40(2): 628-637, 2019 02 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-30251763

ABSTRACT

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with considerable neuroanatomical heterogeneity. Thus, how and to what extent the brains of individuals with ASD differ from each other is still unclear. In this study, brain structural MRI data from 356 right-handed, male subjects with ASD and 403 right-handed male healthy controls were selected from the Autism Brain Image Data Exchange database (age range 5-35 years old). Voxel-based morphometry preprocessing steps were conducted to compute the gray matter volume maps for each subject. Individual neuroanatomical difference patterns for each ASD individual were calculated. A data-driven clustering method was next utilized to stratify individuals with ASD into several subtypes. Whole-brain functional connectivity and clinical severity were compared among individuals within the ASD subtypes identified. A searchlight analysis was applied to determine whether subtyping ASD could improve the classification accuracy between ASD and healthy controls. Three ASD subtypes with distinct neuroanatomical difference patterns were revealed. Different degrees of clinical severity and atypical brain functional connectivity patterns were observed among these three subtypes. By dividing ASD into three subtypes, the classification accuracy between subjects of two out of the three subtypes and healthy controls was improved. The current study confirms that ASD is not a disorder with a uniform neuroanatomical signature. Understanding neuroanatomical heterogeneity in ASD could help to explain divergent patterns of clinical severity and outcomes.


Subject(s)
Autism Spectrum Disorder , Connectome , Gray Matter , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Adolescent , Adult , Autism Spectrum Disorder/classification , Autism Spectrum Disorder/diagnostic imaging , Autism Spectrum Disorder/pathology , Autism Spectrum Disorder/physiopathology , Child , Child, Preschool , Cluster Analysis , Databases, Factual , Gray Matter/diagnostic imaging , Gray Matter/pathology , Gray Matter/physiopathology , Humans , Male , Severity of Illness Index , Young Adult
18.
Psychol Med ; 49(5): 852-860, 2019 04.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-29909788

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with high risk of suicide. Conventional neuroimaging works showed abnormalities of static brain activity and connectivity in MDD with suicidal ideation (SI). However, little is known regarding alterations of brain dynamics. More broadly, it remains unclear whether temporal dynamics of the brain activity could predict the prognosis of SI. METHODS: We included MDD patients (n = 48) with and without SI and age-, gender-, and education-matched healthy controls (n = 30) who underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. We first assessed dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (dALFF) - a proxy for intrinsic brain activity (iBA) - using sliding-window analysis. Furthermore, the temporal variability (dynamics) of iBA was quantified as the variance of dALFF over time. In addition, the prediction of the severity of SI from temporal variability was conducted using a general linear model. RESULTS: Compared with MDD without SI, the SI group showed decreased brain dynamics (less temporal variability) in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, the left orbital frontal cortex, the left inferior temporal gyrus, and the left hippocampus. Importantly, these temporal variabilities could be used to predict the severity of SI (r = 0.43, p = 0.03), whereas static ALFF could not in the current data set. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that alterations of temporal variability in regions involved in executive and emotional processing are associated with SI in MDD patients. This novel predictive model using the dynamics of iBA could be useful in developing neuromarkers for clinical applications.


Subject(s)
Cerebral Cortex/physiopathology , Depressive Disorder, Major/physiopathology , Suicidal Ideation , Adult , Brain Mapping , Cerebral Cortex/diagnostic imaging , Depressive Disorder, Major/diagnostic imaging , Female , Humans , Linear Models , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Male , Middle Aged , Young Adult
19.
Neuroimage ; 165: 112-117, 2018 01 15.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-28986206

ABSTRACT

The right anterior insula (rAI) plays a crucial role in generating adaptive behavior by orchestrating multiple brain networks. Based on functional separation findings of the insula and spectral fingerprints theory of cognitive functions, we hypothesize that the hub role of the rAI is region and frequency dependent. Using the Human Connectome Project dataset and backtracking approach, we segregate the rAI into dorsal and ventral parts at frequency bands from slow 6 to slow 3, indicating the frequency dependent functional separation of the rAI. Functional connectivity analysis shows that, within lower than 0.198 Hz frequency range, the dorsal and ventral parts of rAI form a complementary system to synchronize with externally and internally-oriented networks. Moreover, the relationship between the dorsal and ventral rAIs predicts the relationship between anti-correlated networks associated with the dorsal rAI at slow 6 and slow 5, suggesting a frequency dependent regulation of the rAI to brain networks. These findings could improve our understanding of the rAI by supporting the region and frequency dependent function of rAI and its essential role in coordinating brain systems relevant to internal and external environments.


Subject(s)
Cerebral Cortex/physiology , Cognition/physiology , Nerve Net/physiology , Neural Pathways/physiology , Brain Mapping , Connectome , Female , Humans , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Male
20.
Hum Brain Mapp ; 39(10): 4105-4118, 2018 10.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-29962025

ABSTRACT

Neural circuit dysfunction underlies the biological mechanisms of suicidal ideation (SI). However, little is known about how the brain's "dynome" differentiate between depressed patients with and without SI. This study included depressed patients (n = 48) with SI, without SI (NSI), and healthy controls (HC, n = 30). All participants underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. We constructed dynamic and static connectomics on 200 nodes using a sliding window and full-length time-series correlations, respectively. Specifically, the temporal variability of dynamic connectomic was quantified using the variance of topological properties across sliding window. The overall topological properties of both static and dynamic connectomics further differentiated between SI and NSI, and also predicted the severity of SI. The SI showed decreased overall topological properties of static connectomic relative to the HC. The SI exhibited increases in overall topological properties with regard to the dynamic connectomic when compared with the HC and the NSI. Importantly, combining the overall topological properties of dynamic and static connectomics yielded mean 75% accuracy (all p < .001) with mean 71% sensitivity and mean 75% specificity in differentiating between SI and NSI. Moreover, these features may predict the severity of SI (mean r = .55, all p < .05). The findings revealed that combining static and dynamic connectomics could differentiate between SI and NSI, offering new insight into the physiopathological mechanisms underlying SI. Furthermore, combining the brain's connectome and dynome may be considered a neuromarker for diagnostic and predictive models in the study of SI.


Subject(s)
Connectome/methods , Depressive Disorder, Major/physiopathology , Nerve Net/physiopathology , Suicidal Ideation , Adult , Depressive Disorder, Major/diagnostic imaging , Female , Humans , Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods , Male , Middle Aged , Models, Theoretical , Nerve Net/diagnostic imaging , Spatio-Temporal Analysis , Time Factors
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