Online open neuroimaging mass meta-analysis

We describe a system for meta-analysis where a wiki stores numerical data in a simple format and a web service performs the numerical computation. We initially apply the system on multiple meta-analyses of structural neuroimaging data results. The described system allows for mass meta-analysis, e.g., meta-analysis across multiple brain regions and multiple mental disorders.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures SePublica 2012, ESWC 2012 Workshop, 28 May 2012, Heraklion, Greec

Impact of adverse childhood experiences on educational achievements in young people at clinical high risk of developing psychosis

BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) can affect educational attainments, but little is known about their impact on educational achievements in people at clinical high risk of psychosis (CHR). METHODS: In total, 344 CHR individuals and 67 healthy controls (HC) were recruited as part of the European Community'sSeventh Framework Programme-funded multicenter study the European Network of National Schizophrenia Networks Studying Gene-Environment Interactions (EU-GEI). The brief version of the Child Trauma Questionnaire was used to measure ACE, while educational attainments were assessed using a semi-structured interview. RESULTS: At baseline, compared with HC, the CHR group spent less time in education and had higher rates of ACE, lower rates of employment, and lower estimated intelligence quotient (IQ). Across both groups, the total number of ACE was associated with fewer days in education and lower level of education. Emotional abuse was associated with fewer days in education in HC. Emotional neglect was associated with a lower level of education in CHR, while sexual abuse was associated with a lower level of education in HC. In the CHR group, the total number of ACE, physical abuse, and neglect was significantly associated with unemployment, while emotional neglect was associated with employment. CONCLUSIONS: ACE are strongly associated with developmental outcomes such as educational achievement. Early intervention for psychosis programs should aim at integrating specific interventions to support young CHR people in their educational and vocational recovery. More generally, public health and social interventions focused on the prevention of ACE (or reduce their impact if ACE occur) are recommended.The European Network of National Schizophrenia Networks Studying Gene–Environment Interactions (EU-GEI) Project is funded by grant agreement HEALTH-F2–2010–241909 (Project EU-GEI) from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme. Additional support was provided by a Medical Research Council Fellowship to M. Kempton (grant MR/J008915/1). S. Tognin is supported by a Maudsley Charity Grant (1510). B. Nelson was supported by an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship (1137687)

Resting state fMRI based multilayer network configuration in patients with schizophrenia.

Novel methods for measuring large-scale dynamic brain organisation are needed to provide new biomarkers of schizophrenia. Using a method for modelling dynamic modular organisation (Mucha et al., 2010), evidence suggests higher 'flexibility' (switching between multilayer network communities) to be a feature of schizophrenia (Braun et al., 2016). The current study compared flexibility between 55 patients with schizophrenia and 72 controls (the COBRE Dataset). In addition, novel methods of 'between resting state network synchronisation' (BRSNS) and the probability of transition from one community to another were used to further describe group differences in dynamic community structure. There was significantly higher schizophrenia group flexibility scores in cerebellar (F (1124) = 9.33, p (FDR) = 0.017), subcortical (F (1124) = 13.14, p (FDR) = 0.005), and fronto-parietal task control (F (1124) = 7.19, p (FDR) = 0.033) resting state networks (RSNs), as well as in the left thalamus (MNI XYZ: -2, -13, 12; F(1, 124) = 17.1, p (FDR) < 0.001) and the right crus I (MNI XYZ: 35, -67, -34; F (1, 124) = 19.65, p (FDR) < 0.001). Flexibility in the left thalamus reflected transitions between communities covering default mode and sensory-somatomotor RSNs. BRSNS scores suggested altered dynamic inter-RSN modular configuration in schizophrenia. This study suggests less stable community structure in a schizophrenia group at an RSN and node level and provides novel methods of exploring dynamic community structure. Mediation of group differences by mean time window correlation did however suggest flexibility to be no better as a schizophrenia biomarker than simpler measures and a range of methodological choices affected results

Prevalence of Neuroradiological Abnormalities in First-Episode Psychosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

IMPORTANCE: Individuals presenting with first-episode psychosis (FEP) may have a secondary ("organic") etiology to their symptoms that can be identified using neuroimaging. Because failure to detect such cases at an early stage can have serious clinical consequences, it has been suggested that brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) should be mandatory for all patients presenting with FEP. However, this remains a controversial issue, partly because the prevalence of clinically relevant MRI abnormalities in this group is unclear. OBJECTIVE: To derive a meta-analytic estimate of the prevalence of clinically relevant neuroradiological abnormalities in FEP. DATA SOURCES: Electronic databases Ovid, MEDLINE, PubMed, Embase, PsychINFO, and Global Health were searched up to July 2021. References and citations of included articles and review articles were also searched. STUDY SELECTION: Magnetic resonance imaging studies of patients with FEP were included if they reported the frequency of intracranial radiological abnormalities. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Independent extraction was undertaken by 3 researchers and a random-effects meta-analysis of pooled proportions was calculated. Moderators were tested using subgroup and meta-regression analyses. Heterogeneity was evaluated using the I2 index. The robustness of results was evaluated using sensitivity analyses. Publication bias was assessed using funnel plots and Egger tests. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Proportion of patients with a clinically relevant radiological abnormality (defined as a change in clinical management or diagnosis); number of patients needed to scan to detect 1 such abnormality (number needed to assess [NNA]). RESULTS: Twelve independent studies (13 samples) comprising 1613 patients with FEP were included. Of these patients, 26.4% (95% CI, 16.3%-37.9%; NNA of 4) had an intracranial radiological abnormality, and 5.9% (95% CI, 3.2%-9.0%) had a clinically relevant abnormality, yielding an NNA of 18. There were high degrees of heterogeneity among the studies for these outcomes, 95% to 73%, respectively. The most common type of clinically relevant finding was white matter abnormalities, with a prevalence of 0.9% (95% CI, 0%-2.8%), followed by cysts, with a prevalence of 0.5% (95% CI, 0%-1.4%). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: This systematic review and meta-analysis found that 5.9% of patients presenting with a first episode of psychosis had a clinically relevant finding on MRI. Because the consequences of not detecting these abnormalities can be serious, these findings support the use of MRI as part of the initial clinical assessment of all patients with FEP

GABA, glutamate and neural activity: a systematic review with meta-analysis of multimodal ¹H-MRS-fMRI studies

Multimodal neuroimaging studies combining proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( H-MRS) to quantify GABA and/or glutamate concentrations and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity non-invasively have advanced understanding of how neurochemistry and neurophysiology may be related at a macroscopic level. The present study aimed to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of available studies examining the relationship between H-MRS glutamate and/or GABA levels and task-related fMRI signal in the healthy brain. Ovid (Medline, Embase, and PsycINFO) and Pubmed databases were systematically searched to identify articles published until December 2019. The primary outcome of interest was the association between resting levels of glutamate or GABA and task-related fMRI. Fifty-five papers were identified for inclusion in the systematic review. A further 22 studies were entered into four separate meta-analyses. These meta-analyses found evidence of significant negative associations between local GABA levels and (a) fMRI activation to visual tasks in the occipital lobe, and (b) activation to emotion processing in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)/anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). However, there was no significant association between mPFC/ACC glutamate levels and fMRI activation to cognitive control tasks or to emotional processing, with the relationship to emotion processing related neural activity narrowly missing significance. Moreover, our systematic review also found converging evidence of negative associations between GABA levels and local brain activity, and positive associations between glutamate levels and distal brain activity, outside of the H-MRS sampling region. Albeit less consistently, additional relationships between GABA levels and distal brain activity and between glutamate levels and local brain activity were found. It remains unclear if the absence of effects for other brain regions and other cognitive-emotional domains reflects study heterogeneity or potential confounding effects of age, sex, or other unknown factors. Advances in H-MRS methodology as well as in the integration of H-MRS readouts with other imaging modalities for indexing neural activity hold great potential to reveal key aspects of the pathophysiology of mental health disorders involving aberrant interactions between neurochemistry and neurophysiology such as schizophrenia. 1 1 1 1

Cannabis use in patients with early psychosis is associated with alterations in putamen and thalamic shape

Around half of patients with early psychosis have a history of cannabis use. We aimed to determine if there are neurobiological differences in these the subgroups of persons with psychosis with and without a history of cannabis use. We expected to see regional deflations in hippocampus as a neurotoxic effect and regional inflations in striatal regions implicated in addictive processes. Volumetric, T1w MRIs were acquired from people with a diagnosis psychosis with (PwP + C = 28) or without (PwP − C = 26) a history of cannabis use; and Controls with (C + C = 16) or without (C − C = 22) cannabis use. We undertook vertex‐based shape analysis of the brainstem, amygdala, hippocampus, globus pallidus, nucleus accumbens, caudate, putamen, thalamus using FSL FIRST. Clusters were defined through Threshold Free Cluster Enhancement and Family Wise Error was set at p < .05. We adjusted analyses for age, sex, tobacco and alcohol use. The putamen (bilaterally) and the right thalamus showed regional enlargement in PwP + C versus PwP − C. There were no areas of regional deflation. There were no significant differences between C + C and C − C. Cannabis use in participants with psychosis is associated with morphological alterations in subcortical structures. Putamen and thalamic enlargement may be related to compulsivity in patients with a history of cannabis use

Meta-analysis of regional white matter volume in bipolar disorder with replication in an independent sample using coordinates, T-maps, and individual MRI data

Converging evidence suggests that bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with white matter (WM) abnormalities. Meta-analyses of voxel based morphometry (VBM) data is commonly performed using published coordinates, however this method is limited since it ignores non-significant data. Obtaining statistical maps from studies (T-maps) as well as raw MRI datasets increases accuracy and allows for a comprehensive analysis of clinical variables. We obtained coordinate data (5-studies), T-Maps (12-studies, including unpublished data) and raw MRI datasets (5-studies) and analysed the 24 studies using Seed-based d Mapping (SDM). A VBM analysis was conducted to verify the results in an independent sample. The meta-analysis revealed decreased WM volume in the posterior corpus callosum extending to WM in the posterior cingulate cortex. This region was significantly reduced in volume in BD patients in the independent dataset (p=0.003) but there was no association with clinical variables. We identified a robust WM volume abnormality in BD patients that may represent a trait marker of the disease and used a novel methodology to validate the findings

Association of cannabis with glutamatergic levels in patients with early psychosis: Evidence for altered volume striatal glutamate relationships in patients with a history of cannabis use in early psychosis

The associative striatum, an established substrate in psychosis, receives widespread glutamatergic projections. We sought to see if glutamatergic indices are altered between early psychosis patients with and without a history of cannabis use and characterise the relationship to grey matter. 92 participants were scanned: Early Psychosis with a history of cannabis use (EPC\u2009=\u200929); Early Psychosis with minimal cannabis use (EPMC\u2009=\u200925); Controls with a history of cannabis use (HCC\u2009=\u200916) and Controls with minimal use (HCMC\u2009=\u200922). Whole brain T1 weighted MR images and localised proton MR spectra were acquired from head of caudate, anterior cingulate and hippocampus. We examined relationships in regions with known high cannabinoid 1 receptor (CB1R) expression (grey matter, cortex, hippocampus, amygdala) and low expression (white matter, ventricles, brainstem) to caudate Glutamine+Glutamate (Glx). Patients were well matched in symptoms, function and medication. There was no significant group difference in Glx in any region. In EPC grey matter volume explained 31.9% of the variance of caudate Glx (p\u2009=\u20090.003) and amygdala volume explained 36.9% (p\u2009=\u20090.001) of caudate Glx. There was no significant relationship in EPMC. The EPC vs EPMC interaction was significant (p\u2009=\u20090.042). There was no such relationship in control regions. These results are the first to demonstrate association of grey matter volume and striatal glutamate in the EPC group. This may suggest a history of cannabis use leads to a conformational change in distal CB1 rich grey matter regions to influence striatal glutamatergic levels or that such connectivity predisposes to heavy cannabis use