Repeat traumatic brain injury exacerbates acute thalamic hyperconnectivity in humans.

Repeated mild traumatic brain injury is of growing interest regarding public and sporting safety and is thought to have greater adverse or cumulative neurological effects when compared with single injury. While epidemiological links between repeated traumatic brain injury and outcome have been investigated in humans, exploration of its mechanistic substrates has been largely undertaken in animal models. We compared acute neurological effects of repeat mild traumatic brain injury ( = 21) to that of single injury ( = 21) and healthy controls ( = 76) using resting-state functional MRI and quantified thalamic functional connectivity, given previous identification of its prognostic potential in human mild traumatic brain injury and rodent repeat mild traumatic brain injury.

Exploring the Elastomer Influence on the Electromechanical Performance of Stretchable Conductors.

Stretchable electronics has received major attention in recent years due to the prospects of integrating electronics onto and into the human body. While many studies investigate how different conductive fillers perform in stretchable composites, the effect of different elastomers on composite performance, and the related fundamental understanding of what is causing the performance differences, is poorly understood. Here, we perform a systematic investigation of the elastomer influence on the electromechanical performance of gold nanowire-based stretchable conductors based on five chemically different elastomers of similar Young's modulus.

In-vivo neuronal dysfunction by Aβ and tau overlaps with brain-wide inflammatory mechanisms in Alzheimer's disease.

The molecular mechanisms underlying neuronal dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease (AD) remain uncharacterized. Here, we identify genes, molecular pathways and cellular components associated with whole-brain dysregulation caused by amyloid-beta (Aβ) and tau deposits in the living human brain. We obtained resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI), Aβ- and tau-PET for 47 cognitively unimpaired and 16 AD participants from the Translational Biomarkers in Aging and Dementia cohort.

Brain-age prediction: Systematic evaluation of site effects, and sample age range and size.

Structural neuroimaging data have been used to compute an estimate of the biological age of the brain (brain-age) which has been associated with other biologically and behaviorally meaningful measures of brain development and aging. The ongoing research interest in brain-age has highlighted the need for robust and publicly available brain-age models pre-trained on data from large samples of healthy individuals. To address this need we have previously released a developmental brain-age model.

Tau follows principal axes of functional and structural brain organization in Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a brain network disorder where pathological proteins accumulate through networks and drive cognitive decline. Yet, the role of network connectivity in facilitating this accumulation remains unclear. Using in-vivo multimodal imaging, we show that the distribution of tau and reactive microglia in humans follows spatial patterns of connectivity variation, the so-called gradients of brain organization.

Deciphering the functional specialization of whole-brain spatiomolecular gradients in the adult brain.

Cortical arealization arises during neurodevelopment from the confluence of molecular gradients representing patterned expression of morphogens and transcription factors. However, whether similar gradients are maintained in the adult brain remains unknown. Here, we uncover three axes of topographic variation in gene expression in the adult human brain that specifically capture previously identified rostral-caudal, dorsal-ventral, and medial-lateral axes of early developmental patterning.

A shifting role of thalamocortical connectivity in the emergence of cortical functional organization.

The cortical patterning principle has been a long-standing question in neuroscience, yet how this translates to macroscale functional specialization in the human brain remains largely unknown. Here we examine age-dependent differences in resting-state thalamocortical connectivity to investigate its role in the emergence of large-scale functional networks during early life, using a primarily cross-sectional but also longitudinal approach. We show that thalamocortical connectivity during infancy reflects an early differentiation of sensorimotor networks and genetically influenced axonal projection.

Disrupted cerebellar structural connectome in spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 and its association with transcriptional profiles.

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3) is primarily characterized by progressive cerebellar degeneration, including gray matter atrophy and disrupted anatomical and functional connectivity. The alterations of cerebellar white matter structural network in SCA3 and the underlying neurobiological mechanism remain unknown. Using a cohort of 20 patients with SCA3 and 20 healthy controls, we constructed cerebellar structural networks from diffusion MRI and investigated alterations of topological organization.

Resting State Functional Networks in Gliomas: Validation With Direct Electric Stimulation Using a New Tool for Planning Brain Resections.

Background And Objectives: Precise mapping of functional networks in patients with brain tumor is essential for tailoring personalized treatment strategies. Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) offers an alternative to task-based fMRI, capable of capturing multiple networks within a single acquisition, without necessitating task engagement. This study demonstrates a strong concordance between preoperative rs-fMRI maps and the gold standard intraoperative direct electric stimulation (DES) mapping during awake surgery.

Cognitive control training with domain-general response inhibition does not change children's brains or behavior.

Cognitive control is required to organize thoughts and actions and is critical for the pursuit of long-term goals. Childhood cognitive control relates to other domains of cognitive functioning and predicts later-life success and well-being. In this study, we used a randomized controlled trial to test whether cognitive control can be improved through a pre-registered 8-week intervention in 235 children aged 6-13 years targeting response inhibition and whether this leads to changes in multiple behavioral and neural outcomes compared to a response speed training.

Neuromodulatory subcortical nucleus integrity is associated with white matter microstructure, tauopathy and APOE status.

The neuromodulatory subcortical nuclei within the isodendritic core (IdC) are the earliest sites of tauopathy in Alzheimer's disease (AD). They project broadly throughout the brain's white matter. We investigated the relationship between IdC microstructure and whole-brain white matter microstructure to better understand early neuropathological changes in AD.

Contribution of new and chronic cortical lesions to disability accrual in multiple sclerosis.

Cortical lesions are common in multiple sclerosis and are associated with disability and progressive disease. We asked whether cortical lesions continue to form in people with stable white matter lesions and whether the association of cortical lesions with worsening disability relates to pre-existing or new cortical lesions. Fifty adults with multiple sclerosis and no new white matter lesions in the year prior to enrolment (33 relapsing-remitting and 17 progressive) and a comparison group of nine adults who had formed at least one new white matter lesion in the year prior to enrolment (active relapsing-remitting) were evaluated annually with 7 tesla (T) brain MRI and 3T brain and spine MRI for 2 years, with clinical assessments for 3 years.

A birdcage transmit, 24-channel conformal receive array coil for sensitive P magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging of the human brain at 7 T.

Phosphorus (P) magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) can serve as a critical tool for more direct quantification of brain energy metabolism, tissue pH, and cell membrane turnover. However, the low concentration of P metabolites in biological tissue may result in low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in P MRS images. In this work, we present an innovative design and construction of a P radiofrequency coil for whole-brain MRSI at 7 T.

Investigating the brain's neurochemical profile at midlife in relation to dementia risk factors.

Changes in the brain's physiology in Alzheimer's disease are thought to occur early in the disease's trajectory. In this study our aim was to investigate the brain's neurochemical profile in a midlife cohort in relation to risk factors for future dementia using single voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Participants in the multi-site PREVENT-Dementia study (age range 40-59 year old) underwent 3T magnetic resonance spectroscopy with the spectroscopy voxel placed in the posterior cingulate/precuneus region.

Locus coeruleus integrity is related to an exploitation-based decision-making bias in older adulthood.

Optimal decision-making balances exploration for new information against exploitation of known rewards, a process mediated by the locus coeruleus and its norepinephrine projections. We predicted that an exploitation-bias that emerges in older adulthood would be associated with lower microstructural integrity of the locus coeruleus. Leveraging in vivo histological methods from quantitative MRI-magnetic transfer saturation-we provide evidence that older age is associated with lower locus coeruleus integrity.

Radiation dosimetry of para-chloro-2-[F]fluoroethyl-etomidate: a PET tracer for adrenocortical imaging.

Background: [C]metomidate, a methyl ester analogue of etomidate, is used for positron emission tomography of adrenocortical cancer, and has been tested in recent clinical trials for lateralization in primary aldosteronism (PA). However, in PA, visualization as well as uptake quantification are hampered by the tracer's rather high non-specific liver uptake, and its overall clinical usefulness is also limited by the short 20-minute half-life of carbon-11. Therefore, we evaluated para-chloro-2-[F]fluoroethyl-etomidate, [F]CETO, a fluorine-18 (T=109.

Supervised latent factor modeling isolates cell-type-specific transcriptomic modules that underlie Alzheimer's disease progression.

Late onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease, with brain changes beginning years before symptoms surface. AD is characterized by neuronal loss, the classic feature of the disease that underlies brain atrophy. However, GWAS reports and recent single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) efforts have highlighted that glial cells, particularly microglia, claim a central role in AD pathophysiology.

The effect of head motion on brain age prediction using deep convolutional neural networks.

Deep learning can be used effectively to predict participants' age from brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data, and a growing body of evidence suggests that the difference between predicted and chronological age-referred to as brain-predicted age difference (brain-PAD)-is related to various neurological and neuropsychiatric disease states. A crucial aspect of the applicability of brain-PAD as a biomarker of individual brain health is whether and how brain-predicted age is affected by MR image artifacts commonly encountered in clinical settings. To investigate this issue, we trained and validated two different 3D convolutional neural network architectures (CNNs) from scratch and tested the models on a separate dataset consisting of motion-free and motion-corrupted T1-weighted MRI scans from the same participants, the quality of which were rated by neuroradiologists from a clinical diagnostic point of view.

Nasal inhalation does not improve memory of visual repetitions.

Several studies suggest that breathing entrains neural oscillations and thereby improves visual detection and memory performance during nasal inhalation. However, the evidence for this association is mixed, with some studies finding no, minor, or opposite effects. Here, we tested whether nasal breathing phase influences memory of repeated images presented in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task.

Resting-state functional connectivity in children cooled for neonatal encephalopathy.

Therapeutic hypothermia improves outcomes following neonatal hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy, reducing cases of death and severe disability such as cerebral palsy compared with normothermia management. However, when cooled children reach early school-age, they have cognitive and motor impairments which are associated with underlying alterations to brain structure and white matter connectivity. It is unknown whether these differences in structural connectivity are associated with differences in functional connectivity between cooled children and healthy controls.

Imaging without barriers.

Low-field magnetic resonance imaging can be engineered for widespread point-of-care diagnostics.