Atlas-based structural analysis of prefrontal cortex atrophy in major depressive disorder: Correlations with severity and episode frequency.

BACKGROUND: Current models of major depressive disorder (MDD) primarily focus on the structural and functional changes in key prefrontal areas responsible for emotional regulation. Among these regions some sections such as the dorsal prefrontal area, has received limited attention regarding its structural abnormalities in MDD. This study aims to evaluate volumetric abnormalities in brain regions associated with markers of depression severity and episode frequency. METHODS: The study included 33 MDD patients and 33 healthy subjects. Using an atlas-based method, we measured the volumes of several key brain regions based on MRI data. The regions of interest included prefrontal and posterior sections of the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and superior frontal gyrus (SFG). Additionally, we evaluated the volumes of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), perigenual (rostral) anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC), subgenual cingulate cortex (sgACC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), hippocampus (HPC), and parahippocampus (paraHPC). Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D) scores and count of the depressive episodes of patients were also obtained. A regression analysis with sex as the confounding factor has been made. RESULTS: Analysis of covariances, controlling for sex, showed significant atrophy in the sgACC in the depression group: F(1, 63) = 4.013, p = 0.049 (left) and F(1, 63) = 8.786, p < 0.004 (right). Poisson regression, also controlling for sex, found that each additional depressive episode was associated with a significant reduction in left posterior MFG volume (0.952 times, 95 % CI, 0.906 to 1.000; p = 0.049). CONCLUSIONS: Findings in this study highlight the structural abnormalities in MDD patients in correlation to either current depression severity or chronicity of the disease.

The neurofunctional basis of human aggression varies by levels of femininity.

Aggression can be categorized into reactive aggression (RA) and proactive aggression (PA) based on their underlying motivations. However, previous research has rarely identified the relationship between femininity and RA/PA, and there is a lack of understanding regarding the femininity-related neurofunctional basis of these aggressive behaviors. Thus, this study first examined the relationships between femininity and aggression, then explored the aggression-by-femininity interactions on the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations using resting-state fMRI among 705 university participants (mean age = 19.14 ± 0.99). The behavioral data indicated that femininity was more negatively associated with RA and PA when masculinity was controlled for. Additionally, the neural data revealed that femininity-specific relationships of RA in the left middle occipital gyrus (i.e. individuals with low femininity had positive relationships between RA and the left middle occipital gyrus, whereas those with high femininity had negative relationships) as well as of PA in the left middle frontal gyrus (i.e. individuals with high femininity showed significant negative relationships, whereas those with low femininity did not exhibit significant relationships). These findings reflect that individuals with varying levels of femininity exhibit distinct neural bases when expressing different subtypes of aggression, which are associated with societal expectations of gender.

A comparative study of interhemispheric functional connectivity in major depression and schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) and schizophrenia (SZ) are serious psychiatric disorders that, despite exhibiting different diagnostic criteria, exhibit significant overlap regarding the biological and clinical features of affected patients. While prior evidence has shown that interhemispheric functional connectivity (FC) is abnormal in MDD and SZ, the particular similarities and differences that unify and characterize MDD and SZ regarding these interhemispheric FC patterns remain to be characterized. This study was thus designed to conduct an in-depth analysis of MDD- and SZ-related patterns of interhemispheric FC. METHODS: This study enrolled MDD patients, SZ patients, and normal control (NC) individuals (n = 36 each). Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) studies of these patients were conducted, after which voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) was used to analyze the preprocesses rs-fMRI data. The VMHC values in these different values were then compared through one-way ANOVAs and post hoc analyses. RESULTS: Significant differences were observed in both the striatum and middle frontal gyrus (MFG) when comparing these three groups. Through pairwise comparisons, MDD patients but not SZ patients exhibited reduced MFG VMHC values relative to the NC individuals. Conversely, striatum VMHC values significantly increased in SZ patients relative to NC individuals and MDD patients. CONCLUSION: These results support the interhemispheric functional disconnection hypothesis as a basis for the pathogenesis of MDD and SZ. The observed differences in interhemispheric FC in the MFG and striatum of MDD and SZ patients will offer a neuroimaging basis that can aid in the differential diagnosis of these debilitating conditions.

Human emotion processing accuracy, negative biases, and fMRI activation are associated with childhood trauma.

Introduction: Emerging literature suggests that childhood trauma may influence facial emotion perception (FEP), with the potential to negatively bias both emotion perception and reactions to emotion-related inputs. Negative emotion perception biases are associated with a range of psychiatric and behavioral problems, potentially due or as a result of difficult social interactions. Unfortunately, there is a poor understanding of whether observed negative biases are related to childhood trauma history, depression history, or processes common to (and potentially causative of) both experiences. Methods: The present cross-sectional study examines the relation between FEP and neural activation during FEP with retrospectively reported childhood trauma in young adult participants with remitted major depressive disorder (rMDD, n = 41) and without psychiatric histories (healthy controls [HC], n = 34). Accuracy of emotion categorization and negative bias errors during FEP and brain activation were each measured during exposure to fearful, angry, happy, sad, and neutral faces. We examined participant behavioral and neural responses in relation to total reported severity of childhood abuse and neglect (assessed with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, CTQ). Results: Results corrected for multiple comparisons indicate that higher trauma scores were associated with greater likelihood of miscategorizing happy faces as angry. Activation in the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) positively correlated with trauma scores when participants viewed faces that they correctly categorized as angry, fearful, sad, and happy. Discussion: Identifying the neural mechanisms by which childhood trauma and MDD may change facial emotion perception could inform targeted prevention efforts for MDD or related interpersonal difficulties.

The role of middle frontal gyrus in working memory retrieval by the effect of target detection tasks: a simultaneous EEG-fMRI study.

Maintained working memory (WM) representations have been shown to influence visual target detection selection, while the effect of the visual target detection process on WM retrieval remains largely unknown. In the current research, we used the dual-paradigm of the visual target detection task and the delayed matching task (DMT), which contained the following four conditions: the match condition: the DMT target contained the detection target; the mismatch condition: the DMT target contained the detection distractor; the neutral condition: only the detection target was presented; the catch condition: only the DMT target was presented. Twenty-six subjects were recruited in the experiment with simultaneous EEG-fMRI data. Behaviorally, faster responses were found in the mismatch condition than in the match and neutral conditions. The EEG data found a greater parieto-occipital N1 component in the mismatch condition compared to the neutral condition, and a greater frontal N2 component in the match condition than in the mismatch condition. Moreover, compared to the match and neutral conditions, weaker activations of the bilateral middle frontal gyrus (MFG) were observed in the mismatch condition. And the representational similarity analysis (RSA) revealed significant differences in the representational patterns of the bilateral MFG between mismatch and match conditions, as well as in the representational patterns of the left MFG between mismatch and neutral conditions. Additionally, the left MFG may be the brain source of the N1 component in the mismatch condition. These findings suggest that the mismatch between the DMT target and detection target affects early attention allocation and attentional control in WM retrieval, and the MFG may play an important role in WM retrieval by the effect of the target detection task. In conclusion, our work deepens the understanding of the neural mechanisms by which visual target detection affects WM retrieval.

Subregional prefrontal cortex recruitment as a function of inhibitory demand: an fMRI metanalysis.

Convergent studies corroborated the idea that the right prefrontal cortex is the crucial brain region responsible for inhibiting our actions. However, which sub-regions of the right prefrontal cortex are involved is still a matter of debate. To map the inhibitory function of the sub-regions of the right prefrontal cortex, we performed Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) meta-analyses and meta-regressions (ES-SDM) of fMRI studies exploring inhibitory control. Sixty-eight studies (1684 subjects, 912 foci) were identified and divided in three groups depending on the incremental demand. Overall, our results showed that higher was the inhibitory demand based on the individual differences in performances, more the upper portion of the right prefrontal cortex was activated to achieve a successful inhibition. Conversely, a lower demand of the inhibitory function, was associated with the inferior portions of the right prefrontal cortex recruitment. Notably, in the latter case, we also observed activation of areas associated with working memory and responsible for cognitive strategies.

Differential responses from the left postcentral gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus, and precuneus to meal ingestion in patients with functional dyspepsia.

Background: Functional dyspepsia (FD) is most often a meal-induced syndrome. Studies using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) reported abnormal connectivity in areas related to pain processing in FD. However, only a few studies have attempted to determine how meal ingestion affects the brain's working patterns. Through rs-fMRI, this study observed how meal ingestion affected brain regions related to visceral hypersensitivity and emotional response networks in FD patients. Methods: A total of 30 FD patients and 32 healthy controls (HC) were enrolled and underwent clinical investigations. Rs-fMRI was performed twice after a 4-h fast and 50 min after a meal. The mean functional connectivity strength (FCS) values were extracted from brain regions with significant differences to show the trend of changes related to meal ingestion after FCS analyses. Results: Depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, and weight loss were more common in FD patients (P ≤ 0.001). Compared with HCs (corrected cluster P-value < 0.05), FD patients had significantly higher FCS in the right middle frontal gyrus before meals and higher meal-induced FCS in the left postcentral gyrus. HCs had greater meal-induced activation in the right precuneus and anterior cingulate cortex. FD patients had a decreasing trend in the right inferior frontal gyrus compared to the increasing trend in HCs. We only found anxiety to be negatively correlated with FCS in the right inferior frontal gyrus in FD (r = -0.459, p = 0.048, uncorrected). Conclusions: In this study, we discovered that FD patients have different perceptual and emotional responses to food intake in defined brain areas, providing promising impetus for understanding pathogenic brain mechanisms in FD.

Correlation between cerebral cortex changes and clinical features in patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder with normal-appearing brain tissue: a case-control study.

Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. However, whether and how cortical changes occur in NMOSD with normal-appearing brain tissue, or whether any cortical changes correlate with clinical characteristics, is not completely clear. The current study recruited 43 patients with NMOSD who had normal-appearing brain tissue and 45 healthy controls matched for age, sex, and educational background from December 2020 to February 2022. A surface-based morphological analysis of high-resolution T1-weighted structural magnetic resonance images was used to calculate the cortical thickness, sulcal depth, and gyrification index. Analysis showed that cortical thickness in the bilateral rostral middle frontal gyrus and left superior frontal gyrus was lower in the patients with NMOSD than in the control participants. Subgroup analysis of the patients with NMOSD indicated that compared with those who did not have any optic neuritis episodes, those who did have such episodes exhibited noticeably thinner cortex in the bilateral cuneus, superior parietal cortex, and pericalcarine cortex. Correlation analysis indicated that cortical thickness in the bilateral rostral middle frontal gyrus was positively correlated with scores on the Digit Symbol Substitution Test and negatively correlated with scores on the Trail Making Test and the Expanded Disability Status Scale. These results are evidence that cortical thinning of the bilateral regional frontal cortex occurs in patients with NMOSD who have normal-appearing brain tissue, and that the degree of thinning is correlated with clinical disability and cognitive function. These findings will help improve our understanding of the imaging characteristics in NMOSD and their potential clinical significance.

The processing of stress in a foreign language modulates functional antagonism between default mode and attention network regions.

Lexical stress is an essential element of prosody. Mastering this prosodic feature is challenging, especially in a free-stress foreign language for individuals native to a fixed-stress language, a phenomenon referred to as stress deafness. By using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we elucidated the neuronal underpinnings of stress processing in a free-stress foreign language, and determined the underlying mechanism of stress deafness. Here, we contrasted behavioral and hemodynamic responses revealed by native speakers of a free-stress (German; N = 38) and a fixed-stress (French; N = 47) language while discriminating pairs of words in a free-stress foreign language (Spanish). Consistent with the stress deafness phenomenon, French speakers performed worse than German speakers in discriminating Spanish words based on cues of stress but not of vowel. Whole-brain analyses revealed widespread bilateral networks (i.e., cerebral regions including frontal, temporal and parietal areas as well as insular, subcortical and cerebellar structures), overlapping with the ones previously associated with stress processing within native languages. Moreover, our results provide evidence that the structures pertaining to a right-lateralized attention system (i.e., middle frontal gyrus, anterior insula) and the Default Mode Network modulate stress processing as a function of the performance level. In comparison to the German speakers, the French speakers activated the attention system and deactivated the Default Mode Network to a stronger degree, reflecting attentive engagement, likely a compensatory mechanism underlying the "stress-deaf" brain. The mechanism modulating stress processing argues for a rightward lateralization, indeed overlapping with the location covered by the dorsal stream but remaining unspecific to speech.

Naoxin'an capsules protect brain function and structure in patients with vascular cognitive impairment.

Introduction: Vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) is one of the most common types of dementia. Naoxin'an capsule (NXA), a traditional Chinese medicine compound, has been used to treat VCI for a long time in the clinic. Previous studies proved that the NXA capsules could ameliorate the cerebral mitochondrion deficits of VCI animals. This study aimed to investigate the protectiveness of NXA on human brain structure and function in patients with VCI. Methods: In total, 100 VCI patients were enrolled in this 24-week trial and randomly divided into the NXA capsules group (n = 50) and the ginkgo biloba capsules control group (n = 50). Before and after the treatment, cognitive behavior tests and multimodal brain magnetic resonance imaging were analyzed to comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of NXA treatment on VCI patients after 24 weeks. Results: We found that the NXA group significantly improved overall cognitive ability (Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive section, p = 0.001; Mini-Mental Status Examination, p = 0.003), memory (Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure test, p < 0.001) and executive function (Trail Making Test-A, p = 0.024) performance after treatment compared with the control group. For brain function, the degree of centrality in the left middle frontal gyrus, right postcentral gyrus, and left supplementary motor area increased in the NXA group and decreased in the ginkgo biloba group after treatment. The fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) of the left precentral and right superior parietal gyrus increased, and the fALFF of the right parahippocampal and left inferior temporal gyrus decreased in the NXA group after treatment. For brain structure, the gray matter density of the left postcentral gyrus increased in the NXA group after treatment, and the total volume of white matter hyperintensity showed a decreasing trend but was not statistically significant. Furthermore, the improvement effect of NXA on executive function was associated with changes in brain function. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the NXA capsules improved cognitive performance and multiregional brain function, as well as gray matter structure in the postcentral gyrus.

Verification of the Four-Stage Model of Humor Processing: Evidence from an fMRI Study by Three-Element Verbal Jokes.

The four-stage model comprises the expectation, incongruity, resolution, and elaboration stages of humor processing. In previous studies, most researchers used two-element jokes (setup and punch line) as stimuli, based on experimental methods, to explore the humor process. By contrast, the present study used a humor corpus with the novelty of three-element verbal jokes to perform direct separation from the material and clarify the humor processes. In this study, we used three-element verbal jokes and nonjokes, and we conducted a repeated-measures analysis of variance with a 3 × 2 two-way within-subject design. In humor processing, the posterior insula and middle frontal gyrus were mainly activated in the expectation; the middle temporal gyrus and the medial frontal gyrus in the incongruity; the inferior frontal gyri, superior frontal gyrus, and inferior parietal lobule in the resolution; and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, anterior insula, nucleus accumbens, and midbrain in the elaboration. The contributions of this study lie in its use of a humor corpus with the novelty of self-compiled three-element jokes, which not only successfully verified the models established in previous studies but added the expectation to the model; thus, this study separated the expectation and incongruity processes, making humor processing more complete.

Association of cognitive flexibility with neural activation during the theory of mind processing.

Theory of mind (ToM), which is the ability to infer and reason about others' mental states, plays a key role in successful social interactions. Previous studies have shown that cognitive flexibility (CF), which refers to the ability to adequately switch between different perspectives, is linked to ToM performance in a variety of experimental tasks. However, the mechanisms of the association between CF and ToM is still largely unknown. Here, we investigated the relation of CF with neural activity during ToM processing in 26 healthy male adults using a functional magnetic resonance imaging task of moving shapes in social patterns. The CF abilities were estimated using the self-report Cognitive Flexibility Scale. Diverse brain areas, including the middle frontal gyrus (MFG), inferior frontal gyrus, amygdala, precuneus, and temporoparietal junction (TPJ), were activated during ToM processing. In these areas, individual differences in CF abilities were associated with the strength of neural activity in the right MFG and TPJ. These findings highlight the notion that cognitive ability to switch between different perspectives according to a changing environment is crucial for the attribution of mental state to others, and suggest that the right MFG and TPJ are deserving of further examination for the development of new therapies to improve social cognition in clinical populations.

Learning to read may help promote attention by increasing the volume of the left middle frontal gyrus and enhancing its connectivity to the ventral attention network.

Attention and reading are essential skills for successful schooling and in adult life. While previous studies have documented that attention development supports reading acquisition, whether and how learning to read may improve attention among school-age children and the brain structural and functional development that may be involved remain unknown. In this prospective longitudinal study, we examined bidirectional and longitudinal predictions between attention and reading development and the neural mediators of attention and reading development among school-age children using cross-lagged panel modeling. The results showed that better baseline reading performance significantly predicted better attention performance one year later after controlling for baseline attention performance. In contrast, after controlling for baseline reading performance, attention did not significantly predict reading performance one year later, while more attention problems also significantly predicted worse reading performance. Both the increasing gray matter volume of the left middle frontal gyrus and the increasing connectivity between the left middle frontal gyrus and the ventral attention network mediated the above significant longitudinal predictions. This study, directly revealed that reading skills may predict the development of important cognitive functions, such as attention, in school-age children. Therefore, learning to read is not only a challenge for school-age children but is also an important way to optimize attention and brain development.

Reward Processing in Psychiatric Inpatients With Depression.

BACKGROUND: Previous neuroimaging studies have investigated reward-processing dysfunction in major depressive disorder and have led to the common finding that major depressive disorder is associated with reduced reward responses within the reward circuit. Yet it is unclear whether such reward-processing dysfunction is specifically associated with the severity of depressive symptoms in major depressive disorder or is associated with common comorbidities. METHODS: We investigated reward-processing differences using a classic juice-delivery functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment to compare psychiatric patients with severe depressive symptoms (DEPs) to both psychiatric control subjects (PCs) and healthy control subjects. In this study, the DEPs (n = 108) were matched to healthy control subjects (n = 62) for demographic characteristics and to the PCs (n = 108) for demographics and comorbid psychiatric diagnoses. An a priori region of interest, the left putamen, was selected using previous studies. An exploratory whole-brain analysis was performed to explore for nonhypothesized regions. RESULTS: Relative to the PCs and healthy control subjects, the DEP group showed smaller responses to reward stimulus in the left putamen. Whole-brain exploratory analysis revealed that DEPs had significantly lower responses to reward stimulus in the bilateral dorsal striatum (putamen and caudate), middle frontal gyrus, left precentral gyrus, and middle cingulate cortex than PCs. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that DEPs may have a lesser ability to modulate behavior as a function of reward, especially in those individuals who experience the most severe depressive symptoms. In both DEPs and PCs, the severity of depressive symptoms was related to reduced reward responses in the left putamen.

Regional brain morphology of the primary somatosensory cortex correlates with spicy food consumption and capsaicin sensitivity.

Objective: Habitual spicy food consumption leads to altered perception of capsaicin. Little is known about the neural morphological correlates of habitual spicy food intake and related trigeminal perceptions. In this study, we used voxel-based morphometry to identify brain regions where regional gray matter volume (GMV) correlates to spicy food consumption. Methods: Fifty-two participants were surveyed for their spicy food dietary habit by a composite score of spicy diet duration, frequency of spicy food consumption, and preferred degree of spiciness. Forty-two participants were further assessed for oral sensitivity and intensity ratings of capsaicin-induced irritation, and intranasal sensitivity and intensity of trigeminal odors. Results: We found that the composite spicy score was positively correlated to GMV of the primary somatosensory area (SI), and the primary (M1), supplementary motor areas (SMA) and the putamen. It was negatively correlated to GMV of the anterior insula, orbitofrontal cortex, frontal gyrus and angular gyrus. The GMV of the SI area was negatively correlated to capsaicin sensitivity; the GMV of the right middle frontal gyrus was positively correlated to the irritative intensity for capsaicin at high concentration (70 µM). However, we observed no correlation between the intranasal trigeminal sensitivity and spicy food consumption or the regional GMV. Discussion: Collectively our findings suggest a central neuroanatomical reflection of altered capsaicin perception in relation to habitual spicy food consumption. Future longitudinal studies should elucidate the possible causal relationship of dietary habit and brain structural plasticity.

The neural correlates of mental fatigue and reward processing: A task-based fMRI study.

Increasing time spent on the task (i.e., the time-on-task (ToT) effect) often results in mental fatigue. Typical effects of ToT are decreasing levels of task-related motivation and the deterioration of cognitive performance. However, a massive body of research indicates that the detrimental effects can be reversed by extrinsic motivators, for example, providing rewards to fatigued participants. Although several attempts have been made to identify brain areas involved in mental fatigue and related reward processing, the neural correlates are still less understood. In this study, we used the psychomotor vigilance task to induce mental fatigue and blood oxygen-level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the neural correlates of the ToT effect and the reward effect (i.e., providing extra monetary reward after fatigue induction) in a healthy young sample. Our results were interpreted in a recently proposed neurocognitive framework. The activation of the right middle frontal gyrus, right insula and right anterior cingulate gyrus decreased as fatigue emerged and the cognitive performance dropped. However, after providing an extra reward, the cognitive performance, as well as activation of these areas, increased. Moreover, the activation levels of all of the mentioned areas were negatively associated with reaction times. Our results confirm that the middle frontal gyrus, insula and anterior cingulate cortex play crucial roles in cost-benefit evaluations, a potential background mechanism underlying fatigue, as suggested by the neurocognitive framework.

Intrinsic brain abnormalities in female major depressive disorder patients with childhood trauma: A resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Objective: Childhood trauma is a strong predictor of major depressive disorder (MDD). Women are more likely to develop MDD than men. However, the neural basis of female MDD patients with childhood trauma remains unclear. We aimed to identify the specific brain regions that are associated with female MDD patients with childhood trauma. Methods: We recruited 16 female MDD patients with childhood trauma, 16 female MDD patients without childhood trauma, and 20 age- and education level-matched healthy controls. All participants underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Regional brain activity was evaluated as the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF). Furthermore, functional connectivity (FC) analyses were performed on areas with altered ALFF to explore alterations in FC patterns. Results: There was increased ALFF in the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and the right postcentral gyrus (PoCG) in MDD with childhood trauma compared with MDD without childhood trauma. The areas with significant ALFF discrepancies were selected as seeds for the FC analyses. There was increased FC between the left MFG and the bilateral putamen gyrus. Moreover, ALFF values were correlated with childhood trauma severity. Conclusion: Our findings revealed abnormal intrinsic brain activity and FC patterns in female MDD patients with childhood trauma, which provides new possibilities for exploring the pathophysiology of this disorder in women.

Combined External Ventricular Drainage and Endoscope-Assisted Microsurgery Using the Middle Frontal Gyrus Approach in Severe Ventricular Hemorrhage with Casting of the Fourth Ventricle.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate combined external ventricular drainage and endoscope-assisted microsurgery using the middle frontal gyrus approach in patients with severe ventricular hemorrhage with casting of the fourth ventricle and patients' recovery after this treatment. METHODS: Patients with severe ventricular hemorrhage with casting of the fourth ventricle (n = 41) were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Modified Graeb score was used to assess 3-day hematoma clearance rate before and after surgery, drainage tube extubation time for the 2 groups was compared, and time when blood clot in the fourth ventricle was not blocked with cerebrospinal fluid was compared. Glasgow Coma Scale was used to assess consciousness after surgery; Glasgow Coma Scale scores recorded 1 and 7 days after surgery were also compared. Modified Rankin Scale was used to evaluate patients' recovery 1 and 6 months after surgery. Hydrocephalus and intracranial infections in patients after surgery were recorded for 90 days. RESULTS: The 3-day hematoma clearance rate was dramatically higher in the intervention group. Modified Graeb score showed that more hemorrhage was delimited in 3 days in the intervention group. The intervention group exhibited significantly reduced length of block of the fourth ventricle and drainage tube extubation time. High Glasgow Coma Scale and modified Rankin Scale scores and significantly low incidence of complications (e.g., hydrocephalus and intracranial infection) were observed in patients in the intervention group. CONCLUSIONS: Combined external ventricular drainage and endoscope-assisted microsurgery using the middle frontal gyrus approach can effectively improve severe ventricular hemorrhage with casting of the fourth ventricle and enhance patients' neurological function and recovery.

The midpoint of cortical thinning between late childhood and early adulthood differs between individuals and brain regions: Evidence from longitudinal modelling in a 12-wave neuroimaging sample.

Charting human brain maturation between childhood and adulthood is a fundamental prerequisite for understanding the rapid biological and psychological changes during human development. Two barriers have precluded the quantification of maturational trajectories: demands on data and demands on estimation. Using high-temporal resolution neuroimaging data of up to 12-waves in the HUBU cohort (N = 90, aged 7-21 years) we investigate changes in apparent cortical thickness across childhood and adolescence. Fitting a four-parameter logistic nonlinear random effects mixed model, we quantified the characteristic, s-shaped, trajectory of cortical thinning in adolescence. This approach yields biologically meaningful parameters, including the midpoint of cortical thinning (MCT), which corresponds to the age at which the cortex shows most rapid thinning - in our sample occurring, on average, at 14 years of age. These results show that, given suitable data and models, cortical maturation can be quantified with precision for each individual and brain region.

Changes of Brain Structures and Psychological Characteristics in Predatory, Affective Violent and Nonviolent Offenders.

PURPOSE: Violent subjects were demonstrated to exhibit abnormal brain structures; however, the brain changes may be different between criminals committing affective (VA), predatory violence (VP), and non-violence (NV). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the differences in brain structures and psychological characteristics between VA, VP, and NV offenders. METHODS: Twenty male criminal subjects (7 VP; 6 VA; and 7 NV) offenders; and twenty age-matched male healthy non-criminals were enrolled in this study. All subjects received psychological assessments as well as magnetic resonance imaging scans of the brain. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to understand the differences among four groups with Bonferroni correction. The voxel-based morphometry and voxel-wise diffusion tensor imaging analyses were performed to compare the gray matter (GM) volume and white matter (WM) integrity between the groups. In significant regions, a Spearman correlation analysis was performed to understand the relationship between the brain changes and psychological scores. RESULTS: The ANOVA analysis showed that AUDIT scores were significantly different among four groups, but no significant group difference was noted after Bonferroni correction. The imaging comparisons further demonstrated that the VP and NV offenders exhibited significant alterations of WM and GM tissues in the rectus and superior temporal gyrus, respectively. In addition, the VP offenders exhibited greater GM volumes than VA offenders in the right middle frontal gyrus, and NV offenders had greater GM volumes than VP offenders in the bilateral thalamus. CONCLUSION: We concluded that the VA, VP, and NV groups exhibited different degrees of alterations in GM and WM tissues in regions involved in emotion and cognition.