ABCD Neurocognitive Prediction Challenge 2019: Predicting individual residual fluid intelligence scores from cortical grey matter morphology

We predicted residual fluid intelligence scores from T1-weighted MRI data available as part of the ABCD NP Challenge 2019, using morphological similarity of grey-matter regions across the cortex. Individual structural covariance networks (SCN) were abstracted into graph-theory metrics averaged over nodes across the brain and in data-driven communities/modules. Metrics included degree, path length, clustering coefficient, centrality, rich club coefficient, and small-worldness. These features derived from the training set were used to build various regression models for predicting residual fluid intelligence scores, with performance evaluated both using cross-validation within the training set and using the held-out validation set. Our predictions on the test set were generated with a support vector regression model trained on the training set. We found minimal improvement over predicting a zero residual fluid intelligence score across the sample population, implying that structural covariance networks calculated from T1-weighted MR imaging data provide little information about residual fluid intelligence.Comment: 8 pages plus references, 3 figures, 2 tables. Submission to the ABCD Neurocognitive Prediction Challenge at MICCAI 201

SOCIOECONOMIC AND NEUROANATOMIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO LANGUAGE PERFORMANCE IN CHILDREN BORN VERY PRETERM AT PRESCHOOL AND SCHOOL AGE

Background: Children born very preterm are more likely to have difficulties with language acquisition and use that persist throughout childhood. Preterm birth occurs at a critical time in brain development and interrupts neurodevelopment, which has downstream implications for altered neural structure and function. Prematurity and socioeconomic status greatly impact language performance in children, but the neural substrates are poorly understood. Here the neural constituents of language performance are examined in select cortical and subcortical regions. Methods: Fifty-one children born preterm (24-31 weeks) and 20 born full-term were seen at preschool (mean age = 47 months) and school age (mean age = 74 months). Diverse aspects of language performance were evaluated at preschool and school age and were also aggregated into a single score using principle components analysis. At preschool age, measures of cortical thickness, surface area, subcortical volumes, and fractional anisotropy of white matter tracts were calculated for select frontotemporal regions implicated in language. Caregivers reported on many sociodemographic variables which were reduced using principle components analysis. Repeated measures general linear models were used to examine group differences in language performance and to determine the contributions of group, socioeconomic status, and neuroanatomical substrates to language performance. Results: Children born very preterm performed more poorly than children born full-term on tests of receptive language, verbal fluency and verbal working memory at preschool and school age. Five measures of language performance were reduced to one principle component at both preschool and school age. Socioeconomic status significantly accounted for language performance across groups and time points. Initial neuroanatomical analyses found that subcortical volumes significantly accounted for language performance. Analyses of language performance including neuroanatomy and socioeconomic status revealed that socioeconomic status had a significant main effect, as did some specific measures of cortical thickness, subcortical volumes and white matter tracts. Conclusions: Our findings provide support for poorer language performance in children born very preterm at preschool and school age. The relationship between structural neuroanatomic variations associated with preterm birth and language deficits is supported by our findings that language performance was significantly associated with subcortical volumes. This result highlights the possible importance of corticostriatal learning circuits in poorer language performance in children born very preterm. Importantly, our findings that socioeconomic status substantially accounted for language performance also emphasizes the multifactorial determinants of language problems in preterm birth, which is still poorly understood despite decades of research. Finally, these results have important implications for early intervention on an individual level, as well as policy reform to improve the broader social conditions and medical resources needed by so many Americans

Brain Imaging Correlates of Developmental Coordination Disorder and Associated Impairments

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a common developmental disorder characterised by an inability to learn age appropriate complex motor skills. The first aim of this thesis was to characterise additional cognitive impairments and their relationship with motor difficulties in school aged children with DCD. The second aim was to investigate grey and white matter neuroimaging correlates of motor and cognitive deficits identified. Thirty six children aged 8-10 years who met DSM-5 criteria for DCD and an age-matched typically developing group (N=17) underwent standardised assessments of motor, intellectual, attention, speech and language skills as well as structural and diffusion-weighted MRI scans. Grey matter correlates of impairments were identified using subcortical volumetrics and surface-based analyses of cortical morphology. White matter correlates were examined using tractography and fixel-based fibre morphology of the pyramidal tracts, corpus callosum and cerebellar peduncles. Alongside impaired motor skills, children with DCD performed poorer than controls on several domains of executive function (attention and processing speed) and speech motor control. Motor skills did not correlate with impairments in other domains. Cortical thickness was significantly reduced in the left central sulcus in children with DCD compared to controls. Poor motor skills correlated with measures in left sensorimotor circuitry, posterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula. Poor speech motor control was associated with measures in the thalamus and corticobulbar tract. Poor sustained attention was linked to measures in the right superior cerebellar peduncle. Lower processing speed was associated with reduced mean cortical surface area. Children with DCD show co-occurring impairments in attention and speech motor control. DCD is associated with sensorimotor circuits as well as regions that form part of the default mode and salience networks. Disruption of subcortical circuits may underlie additional impairments. This study provides novel evidence of the neural correlates of DCD

ABCD Neurocognitive Prediction Challenge 2019: Predicting individual fluid intelligence scores from structural MRI using probabilistic segmentation and kernel ridge regression

We applied several regression and deep learning methods to predict fluid intelligence scores from T1-weighted MRI scans as part of the ABCD Neurocognitive Prediction Challenge (ABCD-NP-Challenge) 2019. We used voxel intensities and probabilistic tissue-type labels derived from these as features to train the models. The best predictive performance (lowest mean-squared error) came from Kernel Ridge Regression (KRR; $\lambda=10$), which produced a mean-squared error of 69.7204 on the validation set and 92.1298 on the test set. This placed our group in the fifth position on the validation leader board and first place on the final (test) leader board.Comment: Winning entry in the ABCD Neurocognitive Prediction Challenge at MICCAI 2019. 7 pages plus references, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Deviations from normative brain white and gray matter structure are associated with psychopathology in youth

Contains fulltext : 285929.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access

Reduced hippocampal volume in healthy young ApoE4 carriers: an MRI study.

The E4 allele of the ApoE gene has consistently been shown to be related to an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The E4 allele is also associated with functional and structural grey matter (GM) changes in healthy young, middle-aged and older subjects. Here, we assess volumes of deep grey matter structures of 22 healthy younger ApoE4 carriers and 22 non-carriers (20-38 years). Volumes of the nucleus accumbens, amygdala, caudate nucleus, hippocampus, pallidum, putamen, thalamus and brain stem were calculated by FMRIB's Integrated Registration and Segmentation Tool (FIRST) algorithm. A significant drop in volume was found in the right hippocampus of ApoE4 carriers (ApoE4+) relative to non-carriers (ApoE4-), while there was a borderline significant decrease in the volume of the left hippocampus of ApoE4 carriers. The volumes of no other structures were found to be significantly affected by genotype. Atrophy has been found to be a sensitive marker of neurodegenerative changes, and our results show that within a healthy young population, the presence of the ApoE4+ carrier gene leads to volume reduction in a structure that is vitally important for memory formation. Our results suggest that the hippocampus may be particularly vulnerable to further degeneration in ApoE4 carriers as they enter middle and old age. Although volume reductions were noted bilaterally in the hippocampus, atrophy was more pronounced in the right hippocampus. This finding relates to previous work which has noted a compensatory increase in right hemisphere activity in ApoE4 carriers in response to preclinical declines in memory function. Possession of the ApoE4 allele may lead to greater predilection for right hemisphere atrophy even in healthy young subjects in their twenties

The relationship of multimodal executive function measurement and associated neuroanatomical factors in preschoolers born very low birth weight and full term

Objective: The current study investigated executive function (EF) in preschoolers born very low birth weight (VLBW) and full term by examining the dimensionality of EF and the relationship between multimodal measures of EF. Additionally, we investigated the neuroanatomical factors that may relate to EF in this population. Participants and methods: The sample included 101 preschoolers: 61 VLBW and 40 full term (mean=45.98 months (SD=5.05). EF measures included: Bear Dragon, Gift Touch, Gift Peek, Progressive Executive Categorization Battery, parent rated EF (BRIEF-P), and Child Compliance observational coding. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data were analyzed through voxel-based morphometry (VBM) for a subset of preschoolers. Results: As expected, full term preschoolers were found to have higher EF scores than VLBW preschoolers on all EF measures. When principal component analysis (PCA) was used for the combined group to assess the dimensionality of EF, only one factor emerged that included all four EF performance measures and excluded BRIEF-P scores and Compliance scores. In neuroanatomical analyses, preschoolers born full term had larger gray matter volumes in bilateral temporal, frontal paracentral, putamen, right inferior parietal, and right cerebellum anterior lobe. Preschoolers born VLBW had greater volumes for bilateral frontal, occipital, right cerebellum, right occipital, left frontal, left anterior cingulate, and left parahippocampal regions. In the combined sample, increased gray matter in the right occipital area was related to poorer EF. Additionally, increases in gray matter in the bilateral temporal, right temporal, right insula and right putamen were related to greater EF performance. Conclusion: In this sample, EF performance measures loaded together onto a one-dimensional construct. EF and structural differences were found between VLBW and full term groups: EF was poorer, and structural volumes in the temporal and parietal areas were decreased and volumes in the frontal and occipital areas were increased in the VLBW group relative to the full term group. When examining the relationship between EF and structural volumes in the combined group, stronger EF performance was correlated with increased volume in temporal and deep gray matter as well as decreases in right occipital volume. The limitations in placing these results into the current literature are discussed

Structural changes after videogame practice related to a brain network associated with intelligence

Here gray and white matter changes after four weeks of videogame practice were analyzed using optimized voxel-based morphometry (VBM), cortical surface and cortical thickness indices, and white matter integrity computed from several projection, commissural, and association tracts relevant to cognition. Beginning with a sample of one hundred young females, twenty right handed participants were recruited for the study and assigned to a practice or a control group carefully matched by their general cognitive ability scores. After the first scan, the practice group played ‘Professor Layton and The Pandora's Box’ 4 h per week during four weeks. A second scan was obtained at the end of practice and intelligence was measured again. Image analyses revealed gray and white matter changes in the practice group. Gray matter changes theoretically relevant for intelligence were observed for the practice group mainly in frontal clusters (Brodmann areas 9 and 10) and also in smaller parietal and temporal regions. White matter findings were focused in the hippocampal cingulum and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus. These gray and white matter changes presumably induced by practice did not interact with intelligence tests' scores

Dynamic Patterns of Brain Structure-Behavior Correlation across the Lifespan

Although the brain/behavior correlation is one of the premises of cognitive neuroscience, there is still no consensus about the relationship between brain measures and cognitive function, and only little is known about the effect of age on this relationship. We investigated the age-associated variations on the spatial patterns of cortical thickness correlates of four cognitive domains. We showed that the spatial distribution of the cortical thickness correlates of each cognitive domain is distinctive and depicts varying age-association differences across the adult lifespan. Specifically, the present study provides evidence that distinct cognitive domains are associated with unique structural patterns in three adulthood periods: Early, middle, and late adulthood. These findings suggest a dynamic interaction between multiple neural substrates supporting each cognitive domain across the adult lifespan

Cortical Structure and Cognition in Infants and Toddlers

Cortical structure has been consistently related to cognitive abilities in children and adults, yet we know little about how the cortex develops to support emergent cognition in infancy and toddlerhood when cortical thickness (CT) and surface area (SA) are maturing rapidly. In this report, we assessed how regional and global measures of CT and SA in a sample (N = 487) of healthy neonates, 1-year-olds, and 2-year-olds related to motor, language, visual reception, and general cognitive ability. We report novel findings that thicker cortices at ages 1 and 2 and larger SA at birth, age 1, and age 2 confer a cognitive advantage in infancy and toddlerhood. While several expected brain-cognition relationships were observed, overlapping cortical regions were also implicated across cognitive domains, suggesting that infancy marks a period of plasticity and refinement in cortical structure to support burgeoning motor, language, and cognitive abilities. CT may be a particularly important morphological indicator of ability, but its impact on cognition is relatively weak when compared with gestational age and maternal education. Findings suggest that prenatal and early postnatal cortical developments are important for cognition in infants and toddlers but should be considered in relation to other child and demographic factors