White matter involvement in young non-demented Down's syndrome subjects: a tract-based spatial statistic analysis.

Purpose: Cognitive decline in Down syndrome generally shows neurodegenerative aspects similar to what is observed in Alzheimer's disease. Few studies reported information on white matter integrity. The aim of this study was to evaluate white matter alterations in a cohort of young Down subjects, without dementia, by means of DTI technique, compared to a normal control group.

Cortical Brain Changes in Patients With Locked-In Syndrome Experiencing Hallucinations and Delusions.

Previous evidence suggests that hallucinations and delusions may be detected in patients with the most severe forms of motor disability including locked-in syndrome (LIS). However, such phenomena are rarely described in LIS and their presence may be underestimated as a result of the severe communication impairment experienced by the patients. In this study, we retrospectively reviewed the clinical history and the neuroimaging data of a cohort of patients with LIS in order to recognize the presence of hallucinations and delusions and to correlate it with the pontine damage and the presence of any cortical volumetric changes.

Disembodied Mind: Cortical Changes Following Brainstem Injury in Patients with Locked-in Syndrome.

Locked-in syndrome (LIS) following ventral brainstem damage is the most severe form of motor disability. Patients are completely entrapped in an unresponsive body despite consciousness is preserved. Although the main feature of LIS is this extreme motor impairment, minor non-motor dysfunctions such as motor imagery defects and impaired emotional recognition have been reported suggesting an alteration of embodied cognition, defined as the effects that the body and its performances may have on cognitive domains.

Age-Related Cortical Thickness Reduction in Non-Demented Down's Syndrome Subjects.

Background And Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristic pattern of age-related cortical thinning in patients with Down Syndrome (DS), as assessed by MRI and automatic cortical thickness measurements.

Methods: Ninety-one non-demented subjects with DS (range 11-53 years) were examined using a 1.5 T scanner.

Age effects on cortical thickness in young Down's syndrome subjects: a cross-sectional gender study.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to determine differences in the characteristic pattern of age-related cortical thinning in men and women with Down's syndrome (DS) by means of MRI and automatic cortical thickness measurements and a cross-sectional design, in a large cohort of young subjects.

Methods: Eighty-four subjects with DS, 30 females (11-35 years, mean age ± SD = 22.8 ± 5.

A cervical flexion-extension MRI study in Down syndrome.

Objective: To assess what kind of information MR examination in flexed and extended positions provides in Down syndrome subjects with suspected cranio-cervical instability.

Methods: Between 2005 and 2008, 35 subjects with DS were recruited in the study. Ethics committee approval was granted and a signed informed consent was obtained from the parents.

Whole-brain voxel-based morphometry study of children and adolescents with Down syndrome.

In order to investigate alterations in brain morphology and a possible temporal pattern of neuroanatomical abnormalities in the gray matter (GM), white matter (WM) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of young patients with Down syndrome (DS), high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was performed on 21 children and adolescents with this chromosomal aberration and 27 age-matched participants as controls. In comparison with control subjects, children and adolescents with DS showed not only an overall smaller whole-brain volume, but also volume reductions of the GM in the cerebellum, frontal lobes, frontal region of the limbic lobe, parahippocampal gyri and hippocampi and of the WM in the cerebellum, frontal and parietal lobes, sub-lobar regions and brainstem. By contrast, volume preservation was observed in the GM of the parietal lobes, temporal lobe and sub-lobar regions and in the WM of the temporal lobe and temporal regions of the limbic lobe.