Associations between children's family environment, spontaneous brain oscillations, and emotional and behavioral problems.

The family environment in childhood has a strong effect on mental health outcomes throughout life. This effect is thought to depend at least in part on modifications of neurodevelopment trajectories. In this exploratory study, we sought to investigate whether a feasible resting-state fMRI metric of local spontaneous oscillatory neural activity, the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF), is associated with the levels of children's family coherence and conflict. Moreover, we sought to further explore whether spontaneous activity in the brain areas influenced by family environment would also be associated with a mental health outcome, namely the incidence of behavioral and emotional problems. Resting-state fMRI data from 655 children and adolescents (6-15 years old) were examined. The quality of the family environment was found to be positively correlated with fALFF in the left temporal pole and negatively correlated with fALFF in the right orbitofrontal cortex. Remarkably, increased fALFF in the temporal pole was associated with a lower incidence of behavioral and emotional problems, whereas increased fALFF in the orbitofrontal cortex was correlated with a higher incidence.

Substantia nigra fractional anisotropy is not a diagnostic biomarker of Parkinson's disease: A diagnostic performance study and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVES: Our goal was to estimate the diagnostic accuracy of substantia nigra fractional anisotropy (SN-FA) for Parkinson's disease (PD) diagnosis in a sample similar to the clinical setting, including patients with essential tremor (ET) and healthy controls (HC). We also performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate mean change in SN-FA induced by PD and its diagnostic accuracy. METHODS: Our sample consisted of 135 subjects: 72 PD, 21 ET and 42 HC. To address inter-scanner variability, two 3.0-T MRI scans were performed. MRI results of this sample were pooled into a meta-analysis that included 1,432 subjects (806 PD and 626 HC). A bivariate model was used to evaluate diagnostic accuracy measures. RESULTS: In our sample, we did not observe a significant effect of disease on SN-FA and it was uninformative for diagnosis. The results of the meta-analysis estimated a 0.03 decrease in mean SN-FA in PD relative to HC (CI: 0.01-0.05). However, the discriminatory capability of SN-FA to diagnose PD was low: pooled sensitivity and specificity were 72 % (CI: 68-75) and 63 % (CI: 58-70), respectively. There was high heterogeneity between studies (I2 = 91.9 %). CONCLUSIONS: SN-FA cannot be used as an isolated measure to diagnose PD. KEY POINTS: • SN-FA appears insufficiently sensitive and specific to diagnose PD. • Radiologists must be careful when translating mean group results to clinical practice. • Imaging protocol and analysis standardization is necessary for developing reproducible quantitative biomarkers.

Default mode network maturation and psychopathology in children and adolescents.

BACKGROUND: The human default mode (DMN) is involved in a wide array of mental disorders. Current knowledge suggests that mental health disorders may reflect deviant trajectories of brain maturation. METHOD: We studied 654 children using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans under a resting-state protocol. A machine-learning method was used to obtain age predictions of children based on the average coefficient of fractional amplitude of low frequency fluctuations (fALFFs) of the DMN, a measure of spontaneous local activity. The chronological ages of the children and fALFF measures from regions of this network, the response and predictor variables were considered respectively in a Gaussian Process Regression. Subsequently, we computed a network maturation status index for each subject (actual age minus predicted). We then evaluated the association between this maturation index and psychopathology scores on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). RESULTS: Our hypothesis was that the maturation status of the DMN would be negatively associated with psychopathology. Consistent with previous studies, fALFF significantly predicted the age of participants (p < .001). Furthermore, as expected, we found an association between the DMN maturation status (precocious vs. delayed) and general psychopathology scores (p = .011). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that child psychopathology seems to be associated with delayed maturation of the DMN. This delay in the neurodevelopmental trajectory may offer interesting insights into the pathophysiology of mental health disorders.

Decreased centrality of subcortical regions during the transition to adolescence: a functional connectivity study.

Investigations of brain maturation processes are a key step to understand the cognitive and emotional changes of adolescence. Although structural imaging findings have delineated clear brain developmental trajectories for typically developing individuals, less is known about the functional changes of this sensitive development period. Developmental changes, such as abstract thought, complex reasoning, and emotional and inhibitory control, have been associated with more prominent cortical control. The aim of this study is to assess brain networks connectivity changes in a large sample of 7- to 15-year-old subjects, testing the hypothesis that cortical regions will present an increasing relevance in commanding the global network. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were collected in a sample of 447 typically developing children from a Brazilian community sample who were submitted to a resting state acquisition protocol. The fMRI data were used to build a functional weighted graph from which eigenvector centrality (EVC) was extracted. For each brain region (a node of the graph), the age-dependent effect on EVC was statistically tested and the developmental trajectories were estimated using polynomial functions. Our findings show that angular gyrus become more central during this maturation period, while the caudate; cerebellar tonsils, pyramis, thalamus; fusiform, parahippocampal and inferior semilunar lobe become less central. In conclusion, we report a novel finding of an increasing centrality of the angular gyrus during the transition to adolescence, with a decreasing centrality of many subcortical and cerebellar regions.

Temporal stability of network centrality in control and default mode networks: Specific associations with externalizing psychopathology in children and adolescents.

Abnormal connectivity patterns have frequently been reported as involved in pathological mental states. However, most studies focus on "static," stationary patterns of connectivity, which may miss crucial biological information. Recent methodological advances have allowed the investigation of dynamic functional connectivity patterns that describe non-stationary properties of brain networks. Here, we introduce a novel graphical measure of dynamic connectivity, called time-varying eigenvector centrality (tv-EVC). In a sample 655 children and adolescents (7-15 years old) from the Brazilian "High Risk Cohort Study for Psychiatric Disorders" who were imaged using resting-state fMRI, we used this measure to investigate age effects in the temporal in control and default-mode networks (CN/DMN). Using support vector regression, we propose a network maturation index based on the temporal stability of tv-EVC. Moreover, we investigated whether the network maturation is associated with the overall presence of behavioral and emotional problems with the Child Behavior Checklist. As hypothesized, we found that the tv-EVC at each node of CN/DMN become more stable with increasing age (P < 0.001 for all nodes). In addition, the maturity index for this particular network is indeed associated with general psychopathology in children assessed by the total score of Child Behavior Checklist (P = 0.027). Moreover, immaturity of the network was mainly correlated with externalizing behavior dimensions. Taken together, these results suggest that changes in functional network dynamics during neurodevelopment may provide unique insights regarding pathophysiology.

Long-term structural changes after mTBI and their relation to post-concussion symptoms.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: To investigate sustained structural changes in the long-term (>1 year) after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and their relationship to ongoing post-concussion syndrome (PCS). RESEARCH DESIGN: Morphological and structural connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data were acquired from 16 participants with mTBI and nine participants without previous head injury. MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Participants with mTBI had less prefrontal grey matter and lower fractional anisotropy (FA) in the anterior corona radiata and internal capsule. Furthermore, PCS severity was associated with less parietal lobe grey matter and lower FA in the corpus callosum. CONCLUSIONS: There is evidence for both white and grey matter damage in participants with mTBI over 1 year after injury. Furthermore, these structural changes are greater in those that report more PCS symptoms, suggesting a neurophysiological basis for these persistent symptoms.

Test-retest reliability of fMRI activation generated by different saccade tasks.

PURPOSE: To assess the reproducibility of brain-activation and eye-movement patterns in a saccade paradigm when comparing subjects, tasks, and magnetic resonance (MR) systems. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-five healthy adults at two different sites (n = 45) performed saccade tasks with varying levels of target predictability: predictable (PRED), position predictable (pPRED), time predictable (tPRED), and prosaccade (SAC). Eye-movement pattern was tested with a repeated-measures analysis of variance. Activation maps reproducibility were estimated with the cluster overlap Jaccard index and signal variance coefficient of determination for within-subjects test-retest data, and for between-subjects data from the same and different sites. RESULTS: In all groups latencies increased with decreasing target predictability: PRED < pPRED < tPRED < SAC (P < 0,001). Activation overlap was good to fair (>0.40) in all tasks in the within-subjects test-retest comparisons and poor (<0.40) in the tPRED for different subjects. The overlap of the different tasks for within-groups data was higher (0.40-0.68) than for the between-groups data (0.30-0.50). Activation consistency was 60-85% in the same subjects, 50-79% in different subjects, and 50-80% in different sites. In SAC, the activation found in the same and in different subjects was more consistent than in other tasks (50-80%). CONCLUSION: The predictive saccade tasks produced evidence for brain-activation and eye-movement reproducibility.

Cognitive performance in transient global hypoxic brain injury due to moderate drowning.

INTRODUCTION: Drowning is a serious and frequently neglected public health threat. Primary respiratory impairment after submersion often leads to brain dysfunction. Depending on the period of global hypoxia (respiratory failure), clinical aspects of neurological dysfunction are evident on the first evaluation after the water rescue. Nowadays, many neuropsychological assessments after drowning are inconclusive, with some studies reporting only minor neurological or cognitive impairments. The aim of this study is to identify measures in neuropsychological tests that most contribute to classify volunteers as moderate drowning subjects or healthy controls. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first neuropsychological prospective case-control study of moderate drowning in a country with large coastal cities. METHOD: Fifteen moderate drowning patients (DP), who met the inclusion criteria, were compared with 18 healthy controls (HC). All subjects were assessed on memory, learning, visual spatial ability, executive function, attention, and general intellectual functioning and underwent structural magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the brain at 3.0 T, in order to exclude subjects with anatomic abnormalities. RESULTS: Neuropsychological tests assessing learning, execution function, and verbal fluency-Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) general learning ability, Digit Span total, Phonological Verbal Fluency (total FAS correct), and Brief Visuospatial Memory Test Revised (BVMT) correct recognition-have the strongest discriminating ability, using predictive models via the partial least squares (PLS) approach for data classification, while the other tests have shown similar predictive values between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Learning, execution function, and verbal fluency domains were the most critically affected domains. Serious impairments in the same domains have already been reported in severe drowning cases, and we hypothesize that subtle alterations found in moderate drowning cases, although not sufficient to be detected in daily routine, may possibly have a negative impact on cognitive reserve.

Predictive saccades in children and adults: A combined fMRI and eye tracking study.

Saccades were assessed in 21 adults (age 24 years, SD = 4) and 15 children (age 11 years, SD = 1), using combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and eye-tracking. Subjects visually tracked a point on a horizontal line in four conditions: time and position predictable task (PRED), position predictable (pPRED), time predictable (tPRED) and visually guided saccades (SAC). Both groups in the PRED but not in pPRED, tPRED and SAC produced predictive saccades with latency below 80 ms. In task versus group comparisons, children's showed less efficient learning compared to adults for predictive saccades (adults = 48%, children = 34%, p = 0.05). In adults brain activation was found in the frontal and occipital regions in the PRED, in the intraparietal sulcus in pPRED and in the frontal eye field, posterior intraparietal sulcus and medial regions in the tPRED task. Group-task interaction was found in the supplementary eye field and visual cortex in the PRED task, and the frontal cortex including the right frontal eye field and left frontal pole, in the pPRED condition. These results indicate that, the basic visuomotor circuitry is present in both adults and children, but fine-tuning of the activation according to the task temporal and spatial demand mature late in child development.

Association between abnormal brain functional connectivity in children and psychopathology: A study based on graph theory and machine learning.

OBJECTIVES: One of the major challenges facing psychiatry is how to incorporate biological measures in the classification of mental health disorders. Many of these disorders affect brain development and its connectivity. In this study, we propose a novel method for assessing brain networks based on the combination of a graph theory measure (eigenvector centrality) and a one-class support vector machine (OC-SVM). METHODS: We applied this approach to resting-state fMRI data from 622 children and adolescents. Eigenvector centrality (EVC) of nodes from positive- and negative-task networks were extracted from each subject and used as input to an OC-SVM to label individual brain networks as typical or atypical. We hypothesised that classification of these subjects regarding the pattern of brain connectivity would predict the level of psychopathology. RESULTS: Subjects with atypical brain network organisation had higher levels of psychopathology (p < 0.001). There was a greater EVC in the typical group at the bilateral posterior cingulate and bilateral posterior temporal cortices; and significant decreases in EVC at left temporal pole. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of graph theory methods and an OC-SVM is a promising method to characterise neurodevelopment, and may be useful to understand the deviations leading to mental disorders.

Metamemory and aging: Psychometric properties of the Brazilian version of the Multifactorial Memory Questionnaire for elderly.

Metamemory measures provide subjective memory information and are relevant to investigate memory ability in aging. However, there is a lack of metamemory instruments available in Brazil. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Brazilian version of the Multifactorial Memory Questionnaire (MMQ), which evaluates different dimensions of subjective memory functioning, such as Feelings, Abilities and Strategies used in everyday life. METHODS: The MMQ was translated into Portuguese and administered to 30 Brazilian elderly subjects. The participants underwent cognitive tests, mood scales and metamemory instruments. RESULTS: Analyses revealed good internal consistency (Cronbach's a coefficient ranged from 0.75 to 0.89) and test-retest validity for each MMQ dimensions (positive correlations between two applications ranged from 0.75 to 0.8). Convergent validity evidence for the MMQ was confirmed by significant positive correlations (0.47 to 0.68) with dimensions of the Metamemory in Adulthood scale (MIA) (i.e., the Ability, Control, Self-efficacy and Strategy dimensions). Discriminant validity revealed no associations between the MMQ and cognitive performance, suggesting a weak metamemory-objective memory correspondence. Moreover, there was a negative correlation between MMQ-Ability subscale scores and mood symptoms (-0.63 for anxious symptoms, and -0.54 for depressive symptoms); and the Brazilian MMQ was comparable with MMQ translations to other languages. CONCLUSION: The Brazilian MMQ exhibits good psychometric properties and appears promising for clinical and research purposes. Additional studies are needed to further examine the psychometric properties of the Brazilian MMQ in a larger sample.

Medidas de metamemória fornecem informações acerca da memória subjetiva e são relevantes para se compreender a habilidade de memória no envelhecimento. Todavia, há uma falta de instrumentos de metamemória disponíveis no Brasil. OBJETIVO: O presente trabalho teve como objetivo examinar as propriedades psicométricas da versão brasileira do Questionário Multifatorial de Memória (MMQ), que avalia diferentes aspectos da memória subjetiva, como Sentimentos, Habilidade e Estratégias usadas na vida diária. MÉTODOS: O MMQ foi traduzido para o Português e administrado em 30 idosos brasileiros. Os participantes realizaram testes cognitivos, escalas de humor e questionários de metamemória. RESULTADOS: Análises revelaram boa consistência interna (coeficiente a de Cronbach's variou de 0.75 a 0.89) e validade teste-reteste para cada dimensão do MMQ (correlações positivas entre as duas aplicações variou de 0.75 a 0.8). Validade convergente do MMQ foi identificada através de correlações positivas (0.47 a 0.68) com as dimensões do Metamemory In Adulthood Questionnaire (MIA) (i.e., Habilidade, Controle, Autoeficácia e Estratégia). Validade discriminante revelou ausência de associação entre MMQ e performance cognitiva, sugerindo uma fraca correspondência entre metamemória e memória objetiva. Além disto, observou-se uma correlação negativa entre os escores da subscala MMQ-Habilidade e sintomas do humor (-0.63 para sintomas ansiosos, e -0.54 para sintomas depressivos); e o MMQ Brasileiro se mostrou comparável a traduções do MMQ em outros idiomas. CONCLUSÃO: O MMQ Brasileiro apresenta boas propriedades psicométricas e parece ser promissor para o uso clínico e de pesquisa. Estudos adicionais são necessários para investigar caracteristicas psicométricas do MMQ Brasileiro em uma amostra maior.

Connectome hubs at resting state in children and adolescents: Reproducibility and psychopathological correlation.

Functional brain hubs are key integrative regions in brain networks. Recently, brain hubs identified through resting-state fMRI have emerged as interesting targets to increase understanding of the relationships between large-scale functional networks and psychopathology. However, few studies have directly addressed the replicability and consistency of the hub regions identified and their association with symptoms. Here, we used the eigenvector centrality (EVC) measure obtained from graph analysis of two large, independent population-based samples of children and adolescents (7-15 years old; total N=652; 341 subjects for site 1 and 311 for site 2) to evaluate the replicability of hub identification. Subsequently, we tested the association between replicable hub regions and psychiatric symptoms. We identified a set of hubs consisting of the anterior medial prefrontal cortex and inferior parietal lobule/intraparietal sulcus (IPL/IPS). Moreover, lower EVC values in the right IPS were associated with psychiatric symptoms in both samples. Thus, low centrality of the IPS was a replicable sign of potential vulnerability to mental disorders in children. The identification of critical and replicable hubs in functional cortical networks in children and adolescents can foster understanding of the mechanisms underlying mental disorders.

Local dimension-reduced dynamical spatio-temporal models for resting state network estimation.

To overcome the limitations of independent component analysis (ICA), today's most popular analysis tool for investigating whole-brain spatial activation in resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we present a new class of local dimension-reduced dynamical spatio-temporal model which dispenses the independence assumptions that severely limit deeper connectivity descriptions between spatial components. The new method combines novel concepts of group sparsity with contiguity-constrained clusterization to produce physiologically consistent regions of interest in illustrative fMRI data whose causal interactions may then be easily estimated, something impossible under the usual ICA assumptions.

Independent Component versus Local Sparse Component Analysis in Resting State fMRI.

Independent Component Analysis (ICA) algorithms are potentially powerful ways of localizing sources of cerebral activity in resting state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). But the assumptions underling the nature of identified sources limits this tool. By creating local one-dimensional approximations, Local Sparse Component Analysis (LSCA) can separate contiguous sources on the basis of their sparse representation into smoothness spaces via the 3D wavelet transformation. In this paper we systematically compare Probabilistic ICA (PICA) and LSCA for analyzing resting state fMRI across healthy participants. We show that the PICA sources usually representing biologically plausible components can in fact be decomposed into several LSCA sources that are not necessarily independent from each other. In addition, we show that LSCA identifies sources that approximate much better the local variations of the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal than PICA sources.

Multimodal imaging of mild traumatic brain injury and persistent postconcussion syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Persistent postconcussion syndrome (PCS) occurs in around 5-10% of individuals after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), but research into the underlying biology of these ongoing symptoms is limited and inconsistent. One reason for this could be the heterogeneity inherent to mTBI, with individualized injury mechanisms and psychological factors. A multimodal imaging study may be able to characterize the injury better. AIM: To look at the relationship between functional (fMRI), structural (diffusion tensor imaging), and metabolic (magnetic resonance spectroscopy) data in the same participants in the long term (>1 year) after injury. It was hypothesized that only those mTBI participants with persistent PCS would show functional changes, and that these changes would be related to reduced structural integrity and altered metabolite concentrations. METHODS: Functional changes associated with persistent PCS after mTBI (>1 year postinjury) were investigated in participants with and without PCS (both n = 8) and non-head injured participants (n = 9) during performance of working memory and attention/processing speed tasks. Correlation analyses were performed to look at the relationship between the functional data and structural and metabolic alterations in the same participants. RESULTS: There were no behavioral differences between the groups, but participants with greater PCS symptoms exhibited greater activation in attention-related areas (anterior cingulate), along with reduced activation in temporal, default mode network, and working memory areas (left prefrontal) as cognitive load was increased from the easiest to the most difficult task. Functional changes in these areas correlated with reduced structural integrity in corpus callosum and anterior white matter, and reduced creatine concentration in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that the top-down attentional regulation and deactivation of task-irrelevant areas may be compensating for the reduction in working memory capacity and variation in white matter transmission caused by the structural and metabolic changes after injury. This may in turn be contributing to secondary PCS symptoms such as fatigue and headache. Further research is required using multimodal data to investigate the mechanisms of injury after mTBI, but also to aid individualized diagnosis and prognosis.

Relationship Between Surface-Based Brain Morphometric Measures and Intelligence in Autism Spectrum Disorders: Influence of History of Language Delay.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a group of conditions that show abnormalities in the neuroanatomy of multiple brain regions. The variability in the development of intelligence and language among individuals on the autism spectrum has long been acknowledged, but it remains unknown whether these differences impact on the neuropathology of ASD. In this study, we aimed to compare associations between surface-based regional brain measures and general intelligence (IQ) scores in ASD individuals with and without a history of language delay. We included 64 ASD adults of normal intelligence (37 without a history of language delay and 27 with a history of language delay and 80 neurotypicals). Regions with a significant association between verbal and nonverbal IQ and measures of cortical thickness (CT), surface area, and cortical volume were first identified in the combined sample of individuals with ASD and controls. Thicker dorsal frontal and temporal cortices, and thinner lateral orbital frontal and parieto-occipital cortices were associated with greater and lower verbal IQ scores, respectively. Correlations between cortical volume and verbal IQ were observed in similar regions as revealed by the CT analysis. A significant difference between ASD individuals with and without a history of language delay in the association between CT and verbal IQ was evident in the parieto-occipital region. These results indicate that ASD subgroups defined on the basis of differential language trajectories in childhood can have different associations between verbal IQ and brain measures in adulthood despite achieving similar levels of cognitive performance.

Structural covariance in schizophrenia and first-episode psychosis: An approach based on graph analysis.

Schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disorder that produces abnormalities across different brain regions. Measuring structural covariance with MRI is a well-established approach to investigate common changes in distinct systems. We investigated structural covariance in schizophrenia in a large Brazilian sample of individuals with chronic schizophrenia (n = 143), First Episode Psychosis (n = 32), and matched healthy controls (n = 82) using a combination of graph analysis and computational neuroanatomy. Firstly, we proposed the connectivity-closeness and integrity-closeness centrality measures and them compared healthy controls with chronic schizophrenia regarding these metrics. We then conducted a second analysis on the mapped regions comparing the pairwise difference between the three groups. Our results show that compared with controls, both patient groups (in pairwise comparisons) had a reduced integrity-closeness in pars orbitalis and insula, suggesting that the relationship between these areas and other brain regions is increased in schizophrenia. No differences were found between the First Episode Psychosis and Schizophrenia groups. Since in schizophrenia the brain is affected as a whole, this may mirror that these regions may be related to the generalized structural alteration seen in schizophrenia.

Local sparse component analysis for blind source separation: an application to resting state FMRI.

We propose a new Blind Source Separation technique for whole-brain activity estimation that best profits from FMRI's intrinsic spatial sparsity. The Local Sparse Component Analysis (LSCA) combines wavelet analysis, group-separable regularizers, contiguity-constrained clusterization and principal components analysis (PCA) into a unique spatial sparse representation of FMRI images towards efficient dimensionality reduction without sacrificing physiological characteristics by avoiding artificial stochastic model constraints. The LSCA outperforms classical PCA source reconstruction for artificial data sets over many noise levels. A real FMRI data illustration reveals resting-state activities in regions hard to observe, such as thalamus and basal ganglia, because of their small spatial scale.

Right inferior frontal gyrus activation is associated with memory improvement in patients with left frontal low-grade glioma resection.

Patients with low-grade glioma (LGG) have been studied as a model of functional brain reorganization due to their slow-growing nature. However, there is no information regarding which brain areas are involved during verbal memory encoding after extensive left frontal LGG resection. In addition, it remains unknown whether these patients can improve their memory performance after instructions to apply efficient strategies. The neural correlates of verbal memory encoding were investigated in patients who had undergone extensive left frontal lobe (LFL) LGG resections and healthy controls using fMRI both before and after directed instructions were given for semantic organizational strategies. Participants were scanned during the encoding of word lists under three different conditions before and after a brief period of practice. The conditions included semantically unrelated (UR), related-non-structured (RNS), and related-structured words (RS), allowing for different levels of semantic organization. All participants improved on memory recall and semantic strategy application after the instructions for the RNS condition. Healthy subjects showed increased activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and middle frontal gyrus (MFG) during encoding for the RNS condition after the instructions. Patients with LFL excisions demonstrated increased activation in the right IFG for the RNS condition after instructions were given for the semantic strategies. Despite extensive damage in relevant areas that support verbal memory encoding and semantic strategy applications, patients that had undergone resections for LFL tumor could recruit the right-sided contralateral homologous areas after instructions were given and semantic strategies were practiced. These results provide insights into changes in brain activation areas typically implicated in verbal memory encoding and semantic processing.

Small calcified lesions suggestive of neurocysticercosis are associated with mesial temporal sclerosis.

UNLABELLED: Recent studies have suggested a possible relationship between temporal lobe epilepsy with mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) and neurocysticercosis (NC). We performed a case-control study to evaluate the association of NC and MTS. METHOD: We randomly selected patients with different epilepsy types, including: MTS, primary generalized epilepsy (PGE) and focal symptomatic epilepsy (FSE). Patients underwent a structured interview, followed by head computed tomography (CT). A neuroradiologist evaluated the scan for presence of calcified lesions suggestive of NC. CT results were matched with patients' data. RESULTS: More patients in the MTS group displayed calcified lesions suggestive of NC than patients in the other groups (p=0.002). On multivariate analysis, MTS was found to be an independent predictor of one or more calcified NC lesions (p=0.033). CONCLUSION: After controlling for confounding factors, we found an independent association between NC calcified lesions and MTS.