Associations between Measures of Structural Morphometry and Sensorimotor Performance in Individuals with Nonspecific Low Back Pain

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: To date, most structural brain imaging studies in individuals with nonspecific low back pain have evaluated volumetric changes. These alterations are particularly found in sensorimotor-related areas. Although it is suggested that specific measures, such as cortical surface area and cortical thickness, reflect different underlying neural architectures, the literature regarding these different measures in individuals with nonspecific low back pain is limited. Therefore, the current study was designed to investigate the association between the performance on a sensorimotor task, more specifically the sit-to-stand-to-sit task, and cortical surface area and cortical thickness in individuals with nonspecific low back pain and healthy controls

ENIGMA and global neuroscience: A decade of large-scale studies of the brain in health and disease across more than 40 countries

This review summarizes the last decade of work by the ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Consortium, a global alliance of over 1400 scientists across 43 countries, studying the human brain in health and disease. Building on large-scale genetic studies that discovered the first robustly replicated genetic loci associated with brain metrics, ENIGMA has diversified into over 50 working groups (WGs), pooling worldwide data and expertise to answer fundamental questions in neuroscience, psychiatry, neurology, and genetics. Most ENIGMA WGs focus on specific psychiatric and neurological conditions, other WGs study normal variation due to sex and gender differences, or development and aging; still other WGs develop methodological pipelines and tools to facilitate harmonized analyses of "big data" (i.e., genetic and epigenetic data, multimodal MRI, and electroencephalography data). These international efforts have yielded the largest neuroimaging studies to date in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy, and 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. More recent ENIGMA WGs have formed to study anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts and behavior, sleep and insomnia, eating disorders, irritability, brain injury, antisocial personality and conduct disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. Here, we summarize the first decade of ENIGMA's activities and ongoing projects, and describe the successes and challenges encountered along the way. We highlight the advantages of collaborative large-scale coordinated data analyses for testing reproducibility and robustness of findings, offering the opportunity to identify brain systems involved in clinical syndromes across diverse samples and associated genetic, environmental, demographic, cognitive, and psychosocial factors

The influence of early aging on eye movements during motor simulation

Movement based interventions such as imagery and action observation are used increasingly to support physical rehabilitation of adults during early aging. The efficacy of these more covert approaches is based on an intuitively appealing assumption that movement execution, imagery and observation share neural substrate; alteration of one influences directly the function of the other two. Using eye movement metrics this paper reports findings that question the congruency of the three conditions. The data reveal that simulating movement through imagery and action observation may offer older adults movement practice conditions that are not constrained by the age-related decline observed in physical conditions. In addition, the findings provide support for action observation as a more effective technique for movement reproduction in comparison to imagery. This concern for imagery was also seen in the less congruent temporal relationship in movement time between imagery and movement execution suggesting imagery inaccuracy in early aging

Verbal Learning and Memory Deficits across Neurological and Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Insights from an ENIGMA Mega Analysis.

Deficits in memory performance have been linked to a wide range of neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions. While many studies have assessed the memory impacts of individual conditions, this study considers a broader perspective by evaluating how memory recall is differentially associated with nine common neuropsychiatric conditions using data drawn from 55 international studies, aggregating 15,883 unique participants aged 15-90. The effects of dementia, mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injury, stroke, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder on immediate, short-, and long-delay verbal learning and memory (VLM) scores were estimated relative to matched healthy individuals. Random forest models identified age, years of education, and site as important VLM covariates. A Bayesian harmonization approach was used to isolate and remove site effects. Regression estimated the adjusted association of each clinical group with VLM scores. Memory deficits were strongly associated with dementia and schizophrenia (p 0.05). Differences associated with clinical conditions were larger for longer delayed recall duration items. By comparing VLM across clinical conditions, this study provides a foundation for enhanced diagnostic precision and offers new insights into disease management of comorbid disorders

ENIGMA and global neuroscience: A decade of large-scale studies of the brain in health and disease across more than 40 countries

This review summarizes the last decade of work by the ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Consortium, a global alliance of over 1400 scientists across 43 countries, studying the human brain in health and disease. Building on large-scale genetic studies that discovered the first robustly replicated genetic loci associated with brain metrics, ENIGMA has diversified into over 50 working groups (WGs), pooling worldwide data and expertise to answer fundamental questions in neuroscience, psychiatry, neurology, and genetics. Most ENIGMA WGs focus on specific psychiatric and neurological conditions, other WGs study normal variation due to sex and gender differences, or development and aging; still other WGs develop methodological pipelines and tools to facilitate harmonized analyses of "big data" (i.e., genetic and epigenetic data, multimodal MRI, and electroencephalography data). These international efforts have yielded the largest neuroimaging studies to date in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy, and 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. More recent ENIGMA WGs have formed to study anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts and behavior, sleep and insomnia, eating disorders, irritability, brain injury, antisocial personality and conduct disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. Here, we summarize the first decade of ENIGMA's activities and ongoing projects, and describe the successes and challenges encountered along the way. We highlight the advantages of collaborative large-scale coordinated data analyses for testing reproducibility and robustness of findings, offering the opportunity to identify brain systems involved in clinical syndromes across diverse samples and associated genetic, environmental, demographic, cognitive, and psychosocial factors

Verbal Learning and Memory Deficits across Neurological and Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Insights from an ENIGMA Mega Analysis

Data Availability Statement: The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article and code used for analysis will be made available by the authors on reasonable request pending appropriate study approvals and data transfer agreements between participating institutions.Supplementary Materials: The following supporting information can be downloaded at: https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/brainsci14070669/s1, Table S1: Inclusion/exclusion criteria for each data source; Table S2: Deficit in words recalled for each clinical condition relative to matched controls. Refs. [61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89,90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99,100] are cited in the Supplementary Materials.Deficits in memory performance have been linked to a wide range of neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions. While many studies have assessed the memory impacts of individual conditions, this study considers a broader perspective by evaluating how memory recall is differentially associated with nine common neuropsychiatric conditions using data drawn from 55 international studies, aggregating 15,883 unique participants aged 15–90. The effects of dementia, mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury, stroke, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder on immediate, short-, and long-delay verbal learning and memory (VLM) scores were estimated relative to matched healthy individuals. Random forest models identified age, years of education, and site as important VLM covariates. A Bayesian harmonization approach was used to isolate and remove site effects. Regression estimated the adjusted association of each clinical group with VLM scores. Memory deficits were strongly associated with dementia and schizophrenia (p 0.05). Differences associated with clinical conditions were larger for longer delayed recall duration items. By comparing VLM across clinical conditions, this study provides a foundation for enhanced diagnostic precision and offers new insights into disease management of comorbid disorders.This research was funded by the Psychological Health/Traumatic Brain Injury Research Program Long-Term Impact of Military Relevant Brain Injury Consortium (LIMBIC), Grant/Award Numbers: W81XWH18PH, TBIRPLIMBIC under Awards Numbers: W81XWH1920067 and W81XWH1320095; US Department of Defense, Grant/Award Number: AZ150145; US Department of Veterans Affairs, Grant/Award Numbers: I01 CX002097, I01 CX002096, I01 HX003155, I01 RX003444, I01 RX003443, I01 RX003442, I01 CX001135, I01 CX001246, I01 RX001774, I01 RX001135, I01 RX002076, I01 RX001880, I01 RX002172, I01 RX002173, I01 RX002171, I01 RX002174, I01 RX002170, 1I01 RX003444; National Institutes of Health (NIH), Grant/Award Number(s): RF1NS115268, RF1NS128961, U01NS086625, U01MH124639, P50MH115846, R01MH113827, R25MH080663, K08MH068540, R01NS100973, R01EB006841, P20GM103472, RO1MH083553, T32MH019535, R01 HD061504, RO1MH083553, R01AG050595, R01AG076838, R01AG060470, R01AG064955, P01AG055367, K23MH095661, R01MH094524, R01MH121246, T32MH019535, R01NS124585, R01NS122827, R61NS120249, R01NS122184, U54EB020403, R01MH116147, R56AG058854, P41EB015922, R01MH111671, P41RR14075, M01RR01066, R01EB006841, R01EB005846, R01 EB000840, RC1MH089257, U24 RR021992, and NCRR 5 month-RR001066 (MGH General Clinical Research Center); National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Grant/Award Number: 1P20RR021938; Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Grant/Award Numbers: PI15-00852, PI18-00945, JR19-00024, PI17-00481, PI20-00721; Sara Borrell contract, Grant/Award Number: CD19-00149; German Research Foundation DFG grant FOR2107, Grant/Award Numbers: JA 1890/7-1, JA 1890/7-2, NE2254/1-2, NE2254/2-1, NE2254/3-1, NE2254/4-1, KI588/14-1, KI588/14-2, DA1151/5-1, DA1151/5-2, SFB-TRR58, Projects C09 and Z02; European Union, NextGenerationEU, Grant/Award Numbers: PMP21/00051, PI19/01024; Structural Funds; Seventh Framework Program; H2020 Program under the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking: Project PRISM-2, Grant/Award Number: 101034377; Project AIMS-2-TRIALS, Grant/Award Number: 777394; Horizon Europe; NSF, Grant/Award Number: 2112455; Madrid Regional Government, Grant/Award Number: B2017/BMD-3740 AGES-CM-2; Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation; Research Nova Scotia, Grant/Award Number: RNS-NHIG-2021-1931; NJ Commission on TBI Research Grants, Grant/Award Numbers: CBIR11PJT020, CBIR13IRG026; Department of Psychology, University of Oslo; Sunnaas Rehabilitation Hospital, Grant/Award Number: HF F32NS119285; Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Grant/Award Number: 166098; Neurological Foundation of New Zealand, Grant/Award Number: 2232 PRG; Canterbury Medical Research Foundation, University of Otago; Biogen US Investigator-initiated grant; Italian Ministry of Health, Grant/Award Number: RF-2019-12370182 and Ricerca Corrente RC 23; National Institute on Aging; National Health and Medical Research Council, Investigator Grant/Award Number: APP1176426; PA Health Research, Grant/Award Number: 4100077082; La Caixa Foundation, Grant/Award Number: 100010434, fellowship code: LCF/BQ/PR22/11920017; Research Council of Norway, Grant/Award Number: 248238; Health Research Council of New Zealand Sir Charles Hercus Early Career Development, Grant/Award Numbers: 17/039 and 14-440; Health Research Council of New Zealand, Grant/Award Numbers: 20/538 and 14/440; Research and Education Trust Pacific Radiology, Grant/Award Number: MRIJDA; South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority, Grant/Award Number: 2018076; Norwegian ExtraFoundation for Health and Rehabilitation, Grant/Award Numbers: 2015/FO5146; South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority, Grant/Award Number: 2015044; Stiftelsen K.G. Jebsen, Grant/Award Number: SKGJ MED-02; The Liaison Committee between Central Norway Regional Health Authority (RHA) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Grant/Award Number: 2020/39645; National Health and Medical Research Council, Grant/Award Number: APP1020526; Brain Foundation; Wicking Trust; Collie Trust; Sidney and Fiona Myer Family Foundation; U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC), Grant/Award Number: 13129004; Department of Energy, Grant/Award Number: DE-FG02-99ER62764; Mind Research Network; National Association for Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders, Young Investigator Award; Blowitz Ridgeway and Essel Foundations; Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research (IZKF) of the medical faculty of Münster; NOW ZonMw TOP, Grant/Award Number: 91211021; UCLA Easton Clinic for Brain Health; UCLA Brain Injury Research Center; Stan and Patty Silver; Clinical and Translational Research Center, Grant/Award Numbers: UL1RR033176, UL1TR000124; Mount Sinai Institute for NeuroAIDS Disparities; VA Rehab SPIRE; CDMRP PRAP; VA RR&D, Grant/Award Number: IK2RX002922; Veski Fellowship; Femino Foundation grant; Fundación Familia Alonso; Fundación Alicia Koplowitz; CIBERSAM, Madrid Regional Government, Grant/Award Numbers: B2017/BMD-3740 AGES-CM-2, 2019R1C1C1002457, 21-BR-03-01, 2020M3E5D9079910, 21-BR-03-01; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Grant/Award Numbers: NE2254/1-2, NE2254/2-1, NE2254/3-1, NE2254/4-1