Exploiting blood-based biomarkers to align preclinical models with human traumatic brain injury.

Rodent models are important research tools for studying the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and developing new therapeutic interventions for this devastating neurological disorder. However, the failure rate for the translation of drugs from animal testing to human treatments for TBI is 100%. While there are several potential explanations for this, previous clinical trials have relied on extrapolation from preclinical studies for critical design considerations, including drug dose optimization, post-injury drug treatment initiation and duration.

High Neural Efficiency in Unconscious Perceptual Processing among Table Tennis Athletes: An Event-Related Potential Study.

Background: Neural efficiency refers to the brain's ability to function with reduced resource expenditure while maintaining high performance levels. Previous research has demonstrated that table tennis athletes have greater neural efficiency at the conscious level. However, it is unknown whether they exhibit greater neural efficiency at the unconscious level.

From impact to recovery: tracking mild traumatic brain injury with MRI-a pilot study and case series.

Background: Diagnosis and recovery tracking of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is often challenging due to the lack of clear findings on routine imaging techniques. This also complicates defining safe points for returning to activities.

Hypothesis/purpose: Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) can provide information about cerebral venous oxygen saturation (CSvO) in the context of brain injury.

Long-Term Improvement in Hippocampal-Dependent Learning Ability in Healthy, Aged Individuals Following High Intensity Interval Training.

Physical exercise may reduce dementia risk in aging, but varying reports on its effectiveness make it challenging to ascribe what level of exercise will have significant longer-term effects on important functions such as hippocampal-based learning and memory. This study compared the effect of three different 6-month exercise regimens on hippocampal-dependent cognition in healthy, elderly individuals. Participants, aged 65-85 with no cognitive deficits, were randomly assigned to one of three exercise interventions (low (LIT), medium (MIT), and High intensity interval training (HIIT), respectively).

Characteristics of Resting-State Electroencephalogram Network in α-Band of Table Tennis Athletes.

Background: Table tennis athletes have been extensively studied for their cognitive processing advantages and brain plasticity. However, limited research has focused on the resting-state function of their brains. This study aims to investigate the network characteristics of the resting-state electroencephalogram in table tennis athletes and identify specific brain network biomarkers.

Scanning ultrasound-mediated memory and functional improvements do not require amyloid-β reduction.

A prevalent view in treating age-dependent disorders including Alzheimer's disease (AD) is that the underlying amyloid plaque pathology must be targeted for cognitive improvements. In contrast, we report here that repeated scanning ultrasound (SUS) treatment at 1 MHz frequency can ameliorate memory deficits in the APP23 mouse model of AD without reducing amyloid-β (Aβ) burden. Different from previous studies that had shown Aβ clearance as a consequence of blood-brain barrier (BBB) opening, here, the BBB was not opened as no microbubbles were used.

Diffusion tensor imaging and plasma immunological biomarker panel in a rat traumatic brain injury (TBI) model and in human clinical TBI.

Introduction: Neuroinflammatory reactions play a significant role in the pathology and long-term consequences of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and may mediate salutogenic processes that white matter integrity. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between inflammatory markers and white matter integrity following TBI in both a rat TBI model and clinical TBI cases.

Methods: In the rat model, blood samples were collected following a controlled cortical impact (CCI) to assess a panel of inflammatory markers; MR-based diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was employed to evaluate white matter integrity 60 days post-injury.

Toward hippocampal volume measures on ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging: a comprehensive comparison study between deep learning and conventional approaches.

The hippocampus is a complex brain structure that plays an important role in various cognitive aspects such as memory, intelligence, executive function, and path integration. The volume of this highly plastic structure is identified as one of the most important biomarkers of specific neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. It has also been extensively investigated in numerous aging studies.

Evidence of Ongoing Cerebral Microstructural Reorganization in Children With Persisting Symptoms Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A NODDI DTI Analysis.

Approximately 300-550 children per 100,000 sustain a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) each year, of whom ∼25-30% have long-term cognitive problems. Following mTBI, free water (FW) accumulation occurs in white matter (WM) tracts. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can be used to investigate structural integrity following mTBI.

A cross-comparative analysis of in vivo versus ex vivo MRI indices in a mouse model of concussion.

Background: We present a cross-sectional, case-matched, and pair-wise comparison of structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) measures in vivo and ex vivo in a mouse model of concussion, thus aiming to establish the concordance of structural and diffusion imaging findings in living brain and after fixation.

Methods: We allocated 28 male mice aged 3-4 months to sham injury and concussion (CON) groups. CON mice had received a single concussive impact on day 0 and underwent MRI at day 2 (n = 9) or 7 (n = 10) post-impact, and sham control mice likewise underwent imaging at day 2 (n = 5) or 7 (n = 4).

Cascaded Multi-Modal Mixing Transformers for Alzheimer's Disease Classification with Incomplete Data.

Accurate medical classification requires a large number of multi-modal data, and in many cases, different feature types. Previous studies have shown promising results when using multi-modal data, outperforming single-modality models when classifying diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease (AD). However, those models are usually not flexible enough to handle missing modalities.

Anti-inflammatory interleukin 1 receptor antagonist concentration in plasma correlates with blood-brain barrier integrity in the primary lesion area in traumatic brain injury patients.

Purpose: Blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysregulation and pro-inflammatory signalling molecules are secondary factors that have been associated with injury severity and long-term clinical outcome following traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, the association between BBB permeability and inflammation is unknown in human TBI patients. In this study, we investigated whether BBI integrity as measured by Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced (DCE) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) correlates with plasma levels of immunological markers following TBI.

PREdiction and Diagnosis using Imaging and Clinical biomarkers Trial in Traumatic Brain Injury (PREDICT-TBI) study protocol: an observational, prospective, multicentre cohort study for the prediction of outcome in moderate-to-severe TBI.

Introduction: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a heterogeneous condition with a broad spectrum of injury severity, pathophysiological processes and variable outcomes. For moderate-to-severe TBI survivors, recovery is often protracted and outcomes can range from total dependence to full recovery. Despite advances in medical treatment options, prognosis remains largely unchanged.

Self-reported Fatigue was Associated with Increased White-matter Alterations in Long-term Traumatic Brain Injury and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Patients.

Fatigue is a long-lasting problem in traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with limited research that investigated the fatigue-related white-matter changes within TBI and/or PTSD cohorts. This exploratory cross-sectional study used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and neuropsychological data collected from 153 male Vietnam War veterans, as part of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative - Department of Defense, and were divided clinically into control veterans, PTSD, TBI, and with both TBI and PTSD (TBI + PTSD). The existence of fatigue was defined by the question "Do you often feel tired, fatigued, or sleepy during the daytime?".

Hippocampal demyelination is associated with increased magnetic susceptibility in a mouse model of concussion.

Structural and functional deficits in the hippocampus are a prominent feature of moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). In this work, we investigated the potential of Quantitative Susceptibility Imaging (QSM) to reveal the temporal changes in myelin integrity in a mouse model of concussion (mild TBI). We employed a cross-sectional design wherein we assigned 43 mice to cohorts undergoing either a concussive impact or a sham procedure, with QSM imaging at day 2, 7, or 14 post-injury, followed by Luxol Fast Blue (LFB) myelin staining to assess the structural integrity of hippocampal white matter (WM).

Association of sub-acute changes in plasma amino acid levels with long-term brain pathologies in a rat model of moderate-severe traumatic brain injury.

Introduction: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) induces a cascade of cellular alterations that are responsible for evolving secondary brain injuries. Changes in brain structure and function after TBI may occur in concert with dysbiosis and altered amino acid fermentation in the gut. Therefore, we hypothesized that subacute plasma amino acid levels could predict long-term microstructural outcomes as quantified using neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI).

An end-end deep learning framework for lesion segmentation on multi-contrast MR images-an exploratory study in a rat model of traumatic brain injury.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) engenders traumatic necrosis and penumbra-areas of secondary neural injury which are crucial targets for therapeutic interventions. Segmenting manually areas of ongoing changes like necrosis, edema, hematoma, and inflammation is tedious, error-prone, and biased. Using the multi-parametric MR data from a rodent model study, we demonstrate the effectiveness of an end-end deep learning global-attention-based UNet (GA-UNet) framework for automatic segmentation and quantification of TBI lesions.

Escalation of Tau Accumulation after a Traumatic Brain Injury: Findings from Positron Emission Tomography.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has come to be recognized as a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), with poorly understood underlying mechanisms. We hypothesized that a history of TBI would be associated with greater tau deposition in elders with high-risk for dementia. A Groups of 20 participants with self-reported history of TBI and 100 without any such history were scanned using [F]-AV1451 positron emission tomography as part of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI).

Instant tissue field and magnetic susceptibility mapping from MRI raw phase using Laplacian enhanced deep neural networks.

Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) is an MRI post-processing technique that produces spatially resolved magnetic susceptibility maps from phase data. However, the traditional QSM reconstruction pipeline involves multiple non-trivial steps, including phase unwrapping, background field removal, and dipole inversion. These intermediate steps not only increase the reconstruction time but accumulates errors.

A mice resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging dataset on the effects of medetomidine dosages and prior-stimulation on functional connectivity.

Nine 8 C57Bl6 mice (9 ± 0.5 months) were utilised for this dataset. Each animal was scanned twice on a 9.

Traumatic brain injury alterations in the functional connectome are associated with neuroinflammation but not tau in a P30IL tauopathy mouse model.

Introduction: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is often associated with long-term cognitive deficits and altered brain networks which have been linked with accumulation of neurofibrillary tau tangles and neuroinflammation. In this work, we investigated the changes in the brain post-TBI in an Alzheimer's disease pR5 tauopathy model and evaluated the contribution of tauopathy and neuroinflammation to connectivity alterations using resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rs-fMRI).

Method: 26 P301L tau transgenic mice of 8-9 months of age (21-35 g) expressing the human tau isoform carrying the pathogenic P301L mutation were used for the study.

Deep Neural Networks Predict the Need for CT in Pediatric Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: A Corroboration of the PECARN Rule.

Purpose: Only 10% of CT scans unveil positive findings in mild traumatic brain injury, raising concerns of its overuse in this population. A number of clinical rules have been developed to address this issue, but they still suffer limitations in their specificity. Machine learning models have been applied in limited studies to mimic clinical rules; however, further improvement in terms of balanced sensitivity and specificity is still needed.