16,772 research outputs found
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
Investigating microstructural variation in the human hippocampus using non-negative matrix factorization
In this work we use non-negative matrix factorization to identify patterns of microstructural variance in the human hippocampus. We utilize high-resolution structural and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging data from the Human Connectome Project to query hippocampus microstructure on a multivariate, voxelwise basis. Application of non-negative matrix factorization identifies spatial components (clusters of voxels sharing similar covariance patterns), as well as subject weightings (individual variance across hippocampus microstructure). By assessing the stability of spatial components as well as the accuracy of factorization, we identified 4 distinct microstructural components. Furthermore, we quantified the benefit of using multiple microstructural metrics by demonstrating that using three microstructural metrics (T1-weighted/T2-weighted signal, mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy) produced more stable spatial components than when assessing metrics individually. Finally, we related individual subject weightings to demographic and behavioural measures using a partial least squares analysis. Through this approach we identified interpretable relationships between hippocampus microstructure and demographic and behavioural measures. Taken together, our work suggests non-negative matrix factorization as a spatially specific analytical approach for neuroimaging studies and advocates for the use of multiple metrics for data-driven component analyses
Disentangling causal webs in the brain using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A review of current approaches
In the past two decades, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging has been used
to relate neuronal network activity to cognitive processing and behaviour.
Recently this approach has been augmented by algorithms that allow us to infer
causal links between component populations of neuronal networks. Multiple
inference procedures have been proposed to approach this research question but
so far, each method has limitations when it comes to establishing whole-brain
connectivity patterns. In this work, we discuss eight ways to infer causality
in fMRI research: Bayesian Nets, Dynamical Causal Modelling, Granger Causality,
Likelihood Ratios, LiNGAM, Patel's Tau, Structural Equation Modelling, and
Transfer Entropy. We finish with formulating some recommendations for the
future directions in this area
Gyrification, cortical and subcortical morphometry in neurofibromatosis type 1: an uneven profile of developmental abnormalities.
Background: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a monogenic disorder associated with cognitive impairments. In order to understand how mutations in the NF1 gene impact brain structure it is essential to characterize in detail the brain structural abnormalities in patients with NF1. Previous studies have reported contradictory findings and have focused only on volumetric measurements. Here, we investigated the volumes of subcortical structures and the composite dimensions of the cortex through analysis of cortical volume, cortical thickness, cortical surface area and gyrification. Methods: We studied 14 children with NF1 and 14 typically developing children matched for age, gender, IQ and right/left-handedness. Regional subcortical volumes and cortical gyral measurements were obtained using the FreeSurfer software. Between-group differences were evaluated while controlling for the increase in total intracranial volume observed in NF1. Results: Subcortical analysis revealed disproportionately larger thalami, right caudate and middle corpus callosum in patients with NF1. Cortical analyses on volume, thickness and surface area were however not indicative of significant alterations in patients. Interestingly, patients with NF1 had significantly lower gyrification indices than typically developing children primarily in the frontal and temporal lobes, but also affecting the insula, cingulate cortex, parietal and occipital regions. Conclusions: The neuroanatomic abnormalities observed were localized to specific brain regions, indicating that particular areas might constitute selective targets for NF1 gene mutations. Furthermore, the lower gyrification indices were accompanied by a disproportionate increase in brain size without the corresponding increase in folding in patients with NF1. Taken together these findings suggest that specific neurodevelopmental processes, such as gyrification, are more vulnerable to NF1 dysfunction than others. The identified changes in brain organization are consistent with the patterns of cognitive dysfunction in the NF1 phenotype. © 2013 Violante et al
Investigating White Matter Lesion Load, Intrinsic Functional Connectivity, and Cognitive Abilities in Older Adults
Changes to the while matter of the brain disrupt neural communication between spatially distributed brain regions and are associated with cognitive changes in later life. While approximately 95% of older adults experience these brain changes, not everyone who has significant white matter damage displays cognitive impairment. Few studies have investigated the association between white matter changes and cognition in the context of functional brain network integrity. This study used a data-driven, multivariate analytical model to investigate intrinsic functional connectivity patterns associated with individual variability in white matter lesion load as related to fluid and crystallized intelligence in a sample of healthy older adults (n = 84). Several primary findings were noted. First, a reliable pattern emerged associating whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity with individual variability in measures of white matter lesion load, as indexed by total white matter lesion volume and number of lesions. Secondly, white matter lesion load was associated with increased network disintegration and dedifferentiation. Specifically, lower white matter lesion load was associated with greater within- versus between-network connectivity. Higher white matter lesion load was associated with greater between-network connectivity compared to within. These associations between intrinsic functional connectivity and white matter lesion load were not reliably associated with crystallized and fluid intelligence performance. These results suggest that changes to the white matter of the brain in typically aging older adults are characterized by increased functional brain network dedifferentiation. The findings highlight the role of white matter lesion load in altering the functional network architecture of the brain
Persistent Homology in Sparse Regression and its Application to Brain Morphometry
Sparse systems are usually parameterized by a tuning parameter that
determines the sparsity of the system. How to choose the right tuning parameter
is a fundamental and difficult problem in learning the sparse system. In this
paper, by treating the the tuning parameter as an additional dimension,
persistent homological structures over the parameter space is introduced and
explored. The structures are then further exploited in speeding up the
computation using the proposed soft-thresholding technique. The topological
structures are further used as multivariate features in the tensor-based
morphometry (TBM) in characterizing white matter alterations in children who
have experienced severe early life stress and maltreatment. These analyses
reveal that stress-exposed children exhibit more diffuse anatomical
organization across the whole white matter region.Comment: submitted to IEEE Transactions on Medical Imagin
Eigenspace-Based Minimum Variance Combined with Delay Multiply and Sum Beamformer: Application to Linear-Array Photoacoustic Imaging
In Photoacoustic imaging, Delay-and-Sum (DAS) algorithm is the most commonly
used beamformer. However, it leads to a low resolution and high level of
sidelobes. Delay-Multiply-and-Sum (DMAS) was introduced to provide lower
sidelobes compared to DAS. In this paper, to improve the resolution and
sidelobes of DMAS, a novel beamformer is introduced using Eigenspace-Based
Minimum Variance (EIBMV) method combined with DMAS, namely EIBMV-DMAS. It is
shown that expanding the DMAS algebra leads to several terms which can be
interpreted as DAS. Using the EIBMV adaptive beamforming instead of the
existing DAS (inside the DMAS algebra expansion) is proposed to improve the
image quality. EIBMV-DMAS is evaluated numerically and experimentally. It is
shown that EIBMV-DMAS outperforms DAS, DMAS and EIBMV in terms of resolution
and sidelobes. In particular, at the depth of 11 mm of the experimental images,
EIBMV-DMAS results in about 113 dB and 50 dB sidelobe reduction, compared to
DMAS and EIBMV, respectively. At the depth of 7 mm, for the experimental
images, the quantitative results indicate that EIBMV-DMAS leads to improvement
in Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of about 75% and 34%, compared to DMAS and
EIBMV, respectively.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1709.0796
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; ), 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
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