Key Intrinsic Connectivity Networks for Individual Identification With Siamese Long Short-Term Memory.

In functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analysis, many studies have been conducted on inter-subject variability as well as intra-subject reproducibility. These studies indicate that fMRI could have unique characteristics for individuals. In this study, we hypothesized that the dynamic information during 1 min of fMRI was unique and repetitive enough for each subject, so we applied long short-term memory (LSTM) using initial time points of dynamic resting-state fMRI for individual identification. Siamese network is used to obtain robust individual identification performance without additional learning on a new dataset. In particular, by adding a new structure called region of interest-wise average pooling (RAP), individual identification performance could be improved, and key intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) for individual identification were also identified. The average performance of individual identification was 97.88% using the test dataset in eightfold cross-validation analysis. Through the visualization of features learned by Siamese LSTM with RAP, ICNs spanning the parietal region were observed as the key ICNs in identifying individuals. These results suggest the key ICNs in fMRI could represent individual uniqueness.

Neural Correlates of Transient Mal de Debarquement Syndrome: Activation of Prefrontal and Deactivation of Cerebellar Networks Correlate With Neuropsychological Assessment.

Background: Mal de debarquement syndrome (MdDS) is characterized by a subjective perception of self-motion after exposure to passive motion, mostly after sea travel. A transient form of MdDS (t-MdDS) is common in healthy individuals without pathophysiological certainty. In the present cross-sectional study, the possible neuropsychiatric and functional neuroimaging changes in local fishermen with t-MdDS were evaluated. Methods: The present study included 28 fishermen from Buan County in South Korea; 15 (15/28, 53.6%) participants experienced t-MdDS for 1-6 h, and 13 were asymptomatic (13/28, 46.4%). Vestibular function tests were performed using video-oculography, the video head impulse test, and ocular and cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials. Visuospatial function was also assessed by the Corsi block test. Brain imaging comprised structural MRI, resting-state functional MRI, and [18F]FDG PET scans. Results: The results of vestibular function tests did not differ between the fishermen with and those without t-MdDS. However, participants with t-MdDS showed better performance in visuospatial memory function than those without t-MdDS (6.40 vs. 5.31, p-value = 0.016) as determined by the Corsi block test. Structural brain MRIs were normal in both groups. [18F]FDG PET showed a relative hypermetabolism in the bilateral occipital and prefrontal cortices and hypometabolism in the vestibulocerebellum (nodulus and uvula) in participants with t-MdDS compared to those without t-MdDS. Resting-state functional connectivities were significantly decreased between the vestibular regions of the flocculus, superior temporal gyrus, and parietal operculum and the visual association areas of the middle occipital gyrus, fusiform gyrus, and cuneus in participants with t-MdDS. Analysis of functional connectivity of the significant regions in the PET scans revealed decreased connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and visual processing areas in the t-MdDS group. Conclusion: Increased visuospatial memory, altered metabolism in the prefrontal cortex, visual cognition cortices, and the vestibulocerebellum, and decreased functional connectivity between these two functional areas might indicate reductions in the integration of vestibular input and enhancement of visuospatial attention in subjects with t-MdDS. Current functional neuroimaging similarities from transient MdDS via chronic MdDS to functional dizziness and anxiety disorders suggest a shared mechanism of enhanced self-awareness as a kind of continuum or as overlap disorders.

Frequency specific contribution of intrinsic connectivity networks to the integration in brain networks.

Brain networks are integrated and segregated into several intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs). Frequency specificity of ICNs have been studied to show that different ICNs have a unqiue contribution to brain network integration along frequencies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the contribution of individual ICN to brain network integration along their frequency. We used 14 ICNs and determined 2 frequency bands (LF1, 0.03~0.08 Hz and LF2, 0.009~0.012 Hz) from the hierarchical clustering of 101 frequency bins. We proposed a novel measure, called ICN efficiency, representing the difference between the global efficiencies of the whole brain network with and without the ICN to evaluate the contribution of the ICN to brain network integration. We found that each ICN had a different ICN efficiency at 2 frequency bands. We also found that the distinct subregions of the same ICN had a frequency specific contribution to brain network integration. Futhermore, the integration with other ICNs of the distinct subregions of the same ICN were different at 2 frequency bands. In conclusion, the contribution of each ICN to brain network integration is frequency specific and distinct subregions of the same ICN have functionally distinct roles with other ICNs at 2 frequency bands.

Altered Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Wernicke's Encephalopathy With Vestibular Impairment.

Objectives: To reveal the neural basis of Wernicke's encephalopathy (WE) with impaired vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR), we evaluated resting-state functional connectivity (rs-fc) in the vestibular processing brain regions. Methods: Rs-fc between the vestibular regions and the rest of the brain were compared with neurotological features including the head-impulse tests (vHIT) and caloric responses in patients with WE (n = 5, mean age 53.4 ± 10 years) and healthy controls (n = 20, mean age 55.0 ± 9.2 years). Rs-fc analyses employed a region of interest (ROI)-based approach using regions selected a priori that participate in vestibular processing including the cerebellar vermis, insula, parietal operculum, and calcarine cortex. Results: The main neurologic findings for patients with WE were mental changes; gait ataxia; spontaneous and gaze-evoked nystagmus (GEN); and bilaterally positive HIT for the horizontal canals. Video HIT documented bilateral horizontal canal dysfunction with decreased gain and corrective saccades. Caloric irrigation and rotation chair testing revealed prominent bilateral horizontal canal paresis. Patients with WE also had decreased spatial memory, which substantially recovered after treatments. Functional connections at the predefined seed regions, including the insular cortex and parietal operculum, were attenuated in the WE group compared to healthy controls. Conclusions: WE is related to impaired VOR and visuospatial dysfunction, and fMRI documented changes in the rs-fc of multisensory vestibular processing regions including the insula, parietal operculum, and superior temporal gyrus, which participate in integration of vestibular perception.

Mild cognitive impairment reverters have a favorable cognitive prognosis and cortical integrity in Parkinson's disease.

This study aimed to investigate whether reversion to cognitively normal status (CogN) is related to a favorable cognitive prognosis in Parkinson's disease with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI). We recruited 217 patients with PD-MCI who underwent serial neuropsychological assessments 3-5 times (mean interval, 1.84 years). Thirty-six patients reverted to CogN (reverters) during follow-up, whereas the other 181 did not (nonreverters). We assessed the risk of cognitive worsening in PD-MCI reverters, nonreverters, and patients with PD-CogN (n = 88). In addition, we performed comparative analyses of comprehensive neuroimaging studies between the PD-MCI reverter (n = 17) and nonreverter (n = 34) subgroups. PD-MCI reverters had a lower risk of dementia conversion than nonreverters. In addition, PD-MCI reverters had similar risks of cognitive worsening with patients with PD-CogN. PD-MCI reverters exhibited greater cortical thickness in the right parahippocampal gyrus and less severely decreased functional connectivity in the default mode and executive control networks relative to nonreverters. Our results suggest that PD-MCI reverters have relatively preserved structural and functional integrity and a favorable cognitive prognosis compared with nonreverters.

Gender-specific effect of uric acid on resting-state functional networks in de novo Parkinson's disease.

INTRODUCTION: The pattern of resting-state networks is influenced by several factors besides the underlying pathological changes of Parkinson's disease (PD). Uric acid (UA), as an antioxidant, has a neuroprotective property against PD-related microenvironment; however, this effect would be gender-specific. We aimed to evaluate a gender-sensitive resting-state networks (RSN) according to the UA level in drug naïve de novo patients with PD to elucidate the role of antioxidant in cortical functional networks of PD. METHODS: This study enrolled 135 de novo patients with PD underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Based on the distribution, the serum UA level was stratified into tertiles in the PD patients by gender. With a seed-based approach, we investigated the pattern of RSN within the dorsal attention network (DAN), executive control network (ECN), and default mode network (DMN). RESULTS: Interaction analysis showed a significant interaction between the lowest (PD-L-UA) and the highest UA level (PD-H-UA) groups according to gender within the DAN, ECN, and DMN. Compared to the control subjects, male patients with PD-H-UA had higher cortical functional connectivity (FC), while female patients had lower cortical FC regardless of UA level within all seeds. In a direct comparison, male patients with PD-H-UA had increased FC than did those with PD-L-UA. However, there was no significant difference in FC between PD-L-UA and PD-H-UA in female PD patients. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that RSN might be closely and gender-specifically associated with the status of serum UA in de novo PD patients.

The cholinergic contribution to the resting-state functional network in non-demented Parkinson's disease.

The cholinergic system arising from the basal forebrain plays an important role in cognitive performance in Parkinson's disease (PD). Here, we analyzed cholinergic status-dependent cortical and subcortical resting-state functional connectivity in PD. A total of 61 drug-naïve PD patients were divided into tertiles based on normalized substantia innominata (SI) volumes. We compared the resting-state network from seed region of interest in the caudate, posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and SI between the lowest (PD-L) and highest tertile (PD-H) groups. Correlation analysis of the functional networks was also performed in all subjects. The functional network analysis showed that PD-L subjects displayed decreased striato-cortical functional connectivity compared with PD-H subjects. Selecting the PCC as a seed, the PD-L patients displayed decreased functional connectivity compared to PD-H patients. Meanwhile, PD-L subjects had significantly increased cortical functional connectivity with the SI compared with PD-H subjects. Correlation analysis revealed that SI volume had a positive correlation with functional connectivity from the right caudate and PCC. The present study demonstrated that PD patients exhibited unique functional connectivity from the caudate and the PCC that may be closely associated with cholinergic status, suggesting an important role for the cholinergic system in PD-associated cognition.

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation of the neural correlates of cognitive-behavioral therapy for externalizing behavior problems in adolescent bullies.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the neural correlates of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for externalizing behavior problems in perpetrators of school bullying using assessments of brain activity and behavior. Twenty-five adolescent bullies participated in an 8-session intervention. Prior to and after participation, 24 adolescents were evaluated using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and 23 completed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Changes in the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) and scores on the CBCL were analyzed. We also compared the identified changes into 2 groups (low and high delinquency) differentiated by a cutoff of 65 points on the delinquency subscale of the CBCL. Following the intervention, participants exhibited improvement in the subscores of the CBCL and decreases in the fALFF of the inferior parietal lobule, lingual, interior frontal and middle occipital gyrus. A positive correlation was observed between changes in the CBCL externalizing behavior scores and fALFF of the inferior frontal gyrus. The high delinquency group showed a greater decrease in delinquency and externalizing CBCL subscores across time than did the low delinquency group. The high delinquency group had more areas that showed change in fALFF post-intervention than did the low delinquency group. A positive correlation was observed between changes in the CBCL delinquency scores and fALFF of the precentral gyrus in the high delinquency group. The results indicate that this CBT for externalizing behavior problems in bullies had more positive effects on delinquent behavior in adolescents with high levels of delinquency, and these changes were associated with functional changes in brain activity. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02670876.

Agreement between functional connectivity and cortical thickness-driven correlation maps of the medial frontal cortex.

Parcellation of the human cortex has important implications in neuroscience. Parcellation is often a crucial requirement before meaningful regional analysis can occur. The human cortex can be parcellated into distinct regions based on structural features, such as gyri and sulci. Brain network patterns in a given region with respect to its neighbors, known as connectional fingerprints, can be used to parcellate the cortex. Distinct imaging modalities might provide complementary information for brain parcellation. Here, we established functional connectivity with time series data from functional MRI (fMRI) combined with a correlation map of cortical thickness obtained from T1-weighted MRI. We aimed to extend the previous study, which parcellated the medial frontal cortex (MFC) using functional connectivity, and to test the value of additional information regarding cortical thickness. Two types of network information were used to parcellate the MFC into two sub-regions with spectral and Ward's clustering approaches. The MFC region was defined using manual delineation based on in-house data (n = 12). Parcellation was applied to independent large-scale data obtained from the Human Connectome Project (HCP, n = 248). Agreement between parcellation using fMRI- and thickness-driven connectivity yielded dice coefficient overlaps of 0.74 (Ward's clustering) and 0.54 (spectral clustering). We also explored whole brain connectivity using the MFC sub-regions as seed regions based on these two types of information. The results of whole brain connectivity analyses were also consistent for both types of information. We observed that an inter-regional correlation map derived from cortical thickness strongly reflected the underlying functional connectivity of MFC region.

Sleep Disturbance May Alter White Matter and Resting State Functional Connectivities in Parkinson's Disease.

Study Objectives: To clarify whether sleep disturbance would alter the patterns of structural and functional networks underlying cognitive dysfunction in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods: Among the 180 patients with nondemented PD in our cohort, 45 patients were classified as the group with sleep disturbance according to the 5-item scales for outcomes in Parkinson's disease nighttime scale. Based on propensity scores, another 45 PD patients without sleep disturbance were matched to this group. We performed a comparative analysis of cortical thickness, diffusion tensor imaging-based white matter integrity, resting-state functional connectivity, and cognitive performance between PD patients with and without sleep disturbance. Results: PD patients with sleep disturbance showed poorer performance in attention and working memory and a tendency toward a lower score in frontal executive function relative to those without sleep disturbance. The PD with sleep disturbance group exhibited widespread white matter disintegration compared to the PD without sleep disturbance group, although there were no significant differences in cortical thickness between the PD subgroups. On functional network analysis, PD patients with sleep disturbance exhibited less severely decreased cortical functional connectivity within the default mode network, central executive network, and dorsal attention network when compared to those without sleep disturbance. Conclusions: The present study suggests that sleep disturbance in PD patients could be associated with white matter and functional network alterations in conjunction with cognitive impairment.

Posterior Ventricular Enlargement to Differentiate Dementia with Lewy Bodies from Alzheimer's Disease.

BACKGROUND: Enlargement of the lateral ventricle is observed in dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). OBJECTIVE: The degree of anteroposterior ventricular enlargement and its correlation with clinical and neuropsychological features were investigated in DLB patients. METHODS: Forty-eight patients with DLB, 76 with AD, and 45 subjects with normal cognition (NC) underwent structural brain MRI and detailed neuropsychological tests. Ventricular shape was compared among the groups by visual inspection. Posterior ventricle enlargement (PVE) was defined as the ratio of the distance between the temporal and occipital horns of the lateral ventricle to the distance between the temporal horn of the lateral ventricle and occipital pole of the brain. RESULTS: After controlling for age, sex, and education, higher PVE was observed in the DLB group than in the AD group (68.5 ± 7.9% versus 62.8 ± 9.0%, respectively; p = 0.001) or the NC group (61.9 ± 9.9%, p = 0.002). However, higher PVE was not associated with poorer neuropsychological performance, nor was it associated with any clinical features in the DLB group after controlling for age, sex, and education. CONCLUSION: PVE occurs more often in DLB than in AD and NC. However, it is unclear how PVE is related to the clinical and neuropsychological features of DLB.