The effect of the MR pulse sequence on the regional corpus callosum morphometry.

Background And Purposes: Brain morphometry is an important assessment technique to assess certain morphological brain features of various brain regions, which can be quantified in vivo by using high-resolution structural magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. This study aims to investigate the effect of different types of pulse sequence on regional corpus callosum (CC) morphometry analysis.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-one healthy volunteers were scanned twice on the same 3T MRI scanner (Magnetom Trio, Siemens, Erlangen, Germany) equipped with an 8-channel head coil.

Resting-state functional brain networks in adults with a new diagnosis of focal epilepsy.

Objectives: Newly diagnosed focal epilepsy (NDfE) is rarely studied, particularly using advanced neuroimaging techniques. Many patients with NDfE experience cognitive impairments, particularly with respect to memory, sustained attention, mental flexibility, and executive functioning. Cognitive impairments have been related to alterations in resting-state functional brain networks in patients with neurological disorders.

Microstructure of the superior temporal gyrus and hallucination proneness - a multi-compartment diffusion imaging study.

Previous studies reported that the volume of the left superior temporal gyrus (STG) is reduced in patients with schizophrenia and negatively correlated with hallucination severity. Moreover, diffusion-tensor imaging studies suggested a relationship between the brain microstructure in the STG of patients and auditory hallucinations. Hallucinations are also experienced in non-patient groups.

A voxel-based asymmetry study of the relationship between hemispheric asymmetry and language dominance in Wada tested patients.

Determining the anatomical basis of hemispheric language dominance (HLD) remains an important scientific endeavor. The Wada test remains the gold standard test for HLD and provides a unique opportunity to determine the relationship between HLD and hemispheric structural asymmetries on MRI. In this study, we applied a whole-brain voxel-based asymmetry (VBA) approach to determine the relationship between interhemispheric structural asymmetries and HLD in a large consecutive sample of Wada tested patients.

Agency performance modulates resting-state variation in prefrontal brain regions.

Distinguishing the effects of own from others' actions is a prerequisite for effective interpersonal functioning. Individuals differ in their ability to do this. For example, difficulties in self-other attribution have been linked to positive symptoms of schizophrenia such as hallucinations, with causally ambiguous situations proving a universal challenge.

Neural response to modulating the probability that actions of self or other result in auditory tones: A parametric fMRI study into causal ambiguity.

In normal circumstances we can easily distinguish between changes to the external world brought about by our own actions from those with external causes. However, in certain contexts our sense of ownership and agency over acts is not so clear. Neuroimaging studies have implicated a number of regions in the sense of agency, some of which have been shown to vary continuously with action-outcome discordance.

Ambiguity between self and other: Individual differences in action attribution.

Individuals differ in their ability to attribute actions to self or other. This variance is thought to explain, in part, the experience of voice-hearing. Misattribution can also be context-driven.

Diffusion-weighted MRI characteristics of the cerebral metastasis to brain boundary predicts patient outcomes.

Background: Diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) has been used in neurosurgical practice mainly to distinguish cerebral metastases from abscess and glioma. There is evidence from other solid organ cancers and metastases that DWI may be used as a biomarker of prognosis and treatment response. We therefore investigated DWI characteristics of cerebral metastases and their peritumoral region recorded pre-operatively and related these to patient outcomes.

Specific brain morphometric changes in spinal cord injury with and without neuropathic pain.

Why only certain patients develop debilitating pain after spinal chord injury and whether structural brain changes are implicated remain unknown. The aim of this study was to determine if patients with chronic, neuropathic below-level pain have specific cerebral changes compared to those who remain pain-free. Voxel-based morphometry of high resolution, T1-weighted images was performed on three subject groups comprising patients with pain (SCI-P, n = 18), patients without pain (SCI-N, n = 12) and age- and sex-matched controls (n = 18).

Effect of thyroxine on brain microstructure in extremely premature babies: magnetic resonance imaging findings in the TIPIT study.

Background: In order to assess relationships between thyroid hormone status and findings on brain MRI, a subset of babies was recruited to a multi-centre randomised, placebo-controlled trial of levothyroxine (LT4) supplementation for babies born before 28 weeks' gestation (known as the TIPIT study, for Thyroxine supplementation In Preterm InfanTs). These infants were imaged at term-equivalence.

Materials And Methods: Forty-five TIPIT participants had brain MRI using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to estimate white matter development by apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), fractional anisotropy (FA) and tractography metrics of number and length of streamlines.

Different association between intentionality competence and prefrontal volume in left- and right-handers.

Intentionality is the ability to explain and predict the behaviour of others by attributing to them mental states, and is thus important for social cognition. Prefrontal cortex (PFC) including orbital and dorsal regions is implicated in a range of social and metacognitive executive functions (EFs). We investigate, for the first time, in 39 left-handers and 43 right-handers the effect of handedness on the relationship between intentionality and (i) PFC volume using stereology and (ii) grey matter (GM) volume within six a priori regions of interest using voxel-based morphometry (VBM).

Structural alterations in brainstem of fibromyalgia syndrome patients correlate with sensitivity to mechanical pressure.

Fibromyalgia syndrome is a chronic pain disorder characterised by widespread pain and tenderness in muscles and deep tissues. Current theories regarding the pathophysiological origins of fibromyalgia syndrome point towards central sensitisation and a decreased capacity of descending nociceptive controls. Morphological alterations to subcortical brain regions may contribute to such pathophysiological mechanisms, and to pain and other symptoms seen in fibromyalgia.

Neuroanatomical correlates of tinnitus revealed by cortical thickness analysis and diffusion tensor imaging.

Introduction: Tinnitus is a poorly understood auditory perception of sound in the absence of external stimuli. Convergent evidence proposes that tinnitus perception involves brain structural alterations as part of its pathophysiology. The aim of this study is to investigate the structural brain changes that might be associated with tinnitus-related stress and negative emotions.

Regional brain responses to pleasant and unpleasant IAPS pictures: different networks.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the brain circuitry involved in the processing of both positive and negative emotions in normal healthy subjects.

Method: we have recruited 15 healthy volunteers (9 males and 6 females, age range 30-60). In this block-design fMRI study, we compared the blood oxygen level dependant (BOLD) signal change as response to pleasant and unpleasant IAPS pictures, each compared to a neutral condition.

Calibrated fMRI during a cognitive Stroop task reveals reduced metabolic response with increasing age.

fMRI studies of aging have revealed increased blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) response to tasks of executive function with advancing age, which is generally interpreted as increased neural activity. However, changes in the cerebrovascular system with age can alter the BOLD signal, complicating this interpretation. Arterial spin labeling (ASL) allows simultaneous acquisition of BOLD and cerebral blood flow (CBF) information and can be used to quantify the component parts of the BOLD signal.

Plasticity of the superior and middle cerebellar peduncles in musicians revealed by quantitative analysis of volume and number of streamlines based on diffusion tensor tractography.

This work was conducted to study the plasticity of superior (SCP) and middle (MCP) cerebellar peduncles in musicians. The cerebellum is well known to support several musically relevant motor, sensory and cognitive functions. Previous studies reported increased cerebellar volume and grey matter (GM) density in musicians.

Increased gray matter volume of left pars opercularis in male orchestral musicians correlate positively with years of musical performance.

Purpose: To compare manual volumetry of gray matter (GM) / white matter (WM) of Broca's area subparts: pars opercularis (POP) and pars triangularis (PTR) in both hemispheres between musicians and nonmusician, as it has been shown that these regions are crucial for musical abilities. A previous voxel-based morphometric (VBM) study conducted in our laboratory reported increased GM density in Broca's area of left hemisphere in male orchestral musicians. Functional segregation of POP/PTR justified separate volumetric analysis of these parts.

Regional corpus callosum morphometry: effect of field strength and pulse sequence.

Purpose: To investigate whether scanning at different field strengths and pulse sequences would influence reproducibility of corpus callosum (CC) morphometric measurements as variations in scanning parameters may result in differences in contrast properties between resulting images that are independent of the underlying tissue but rather reflect the physics of the imaging process.

Materials And Methods: Ten subjects were scanned twice at 3T using magnetization-prepared rapid gradient-echo imaging (MPRAGE) and modified driven equilibrium Fourier transform (MDEFT) sequences and once at 1.5T using MPRAGE.

Heschl gyrus and its included primary auditory cortex: structural MRI studies in healthy and diseased subjects.

Despite the fact that the Heschl gyrus (HG) is a crucial brain structure as it contains the primary auditory cortex (PAC), relatively few structural MRI studies have concentrated upon it. We propose that this may be attributed in part to the considerable variability of this structure and, most importantly, to the lack of unified criteria for defining the extent of the PAC along the MRI-determined landmarks of the HG, which ultimately affects the reliability and reproducibility of these studies. This review highlights three aspects: first, the standard and variant anatomy of the HG and PAC with particular focus on MRI definition of these regions; second, the importance of studying the HG and PAC in health and disease using structural MRI; and, third, the problem of MRI localization of the PAC.

TIPIT: a randomised controlled trial of thyroxine in preterm infants under 28 weeks gestation: magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance angiography protocol.

Background: Infants born at extreme prematurity are at high risk of developmental disability. A major risk factor for disability is having a low level of thyroid hormone described as hypothyroxinaemia, which is recognised to be a frequent phenomenon in these infants. Derangements of critical thyroid function during the sensitive window in prematurity when early development occurs, may have a range of long term effects for brain development.

Sulcal variability, stereological measurement and asymmetry of Broca's area on MR images.

Leftward volume asymmetry of the pars opercularis and pars triangularis may exist in the human brain, frequently referred to as Broca's area, given the functional asymmetries observed in this region with regard to language expression. However, post-mortem and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have failed to consistently identify such a volumetric asymmetry. In the present study, an analysis of the asymmetry of sulco-gyral anatomy and volume of this anterior speech region was performed in combination with an analysis of the morphology and volume asymmetry of the planum temporale, located within the posterior speech region, in 50 healthy subjects using MRI.

Broca's area supports enhanced visuospatial cognition in orchestral musicians.

We provide neurobehavioral evidence supporting the transferable benefit of music training to alter brain function and enhance cognitive performance in a nonmusical visuospatial task in professional orchestral musicians. In particular, orchestral musicians' performance on a three-dimensional mental rotation (3DMR) task exhibited the behavioral profile normally only attained after significant practice, supporting the suggestion that these musicians already possessed well developed neural circuits to support 3DMR. Furthermore, functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that only orchestral musicians showed significantly increased activation in Broca's area, in addition to the well known visuospatial network, which was activated in both musicians and nonmusicians who were matched on age, sex, and verbal intelligence.

Effects of sex and age on regional prefrontal brain volume in two human cohorts.

This study examined interactive effects of sex and age on prefrontal brain anatomy in humans. It specifically targeted ranges of the adult life span and regions of cortex that previously showed male-female differences. Participants were 68 healthy human males and females aged 20-72 years.

Structural, functional, and perceptual differences in Heschl's gyrus and musical instrument preference.

The musical pitch of harmonic complex sounds, such as instrumental sounds, is perceived primarily by decoding either the fundamental pitch (keynote) or spectral aspects of the stimuli, for example, single harmonics. We divided 334 professional musicians, including symphony orchestra musicians, 75 amateur musicians, and 54 nonmusicians, into either fundamental pitch listeners or spectral pitch listeners. We observed a strong correlation between pitch perception preference and asymmetry of brain structure and function in the pitch-sensitive lateral areas of Heschl's gyrus (HG), irrespective of musical ability.