University of Sussex
Browse

File(s) not publicly available

Anatomical brain connectivity can assess cognitive dysfunction in multiple sclerosis

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 14:54 authored by Marco Bozzali, B Spanò, G J M Parker, G Giulietti, M Castelli, B Basile, S Rossi, L Serra, G Magnani, U Nocentini, C Caltagirone, D Centonze, Mara Cercignani
BACKGROUND: Brain disconnection plays a major role in determining cognitive disabilities in multiple sclerosis (MS). We recently developed a novel diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) tractography approach, namely anatomical connectivitity mapping (ACM), that quantifies structural brain connectivity. OBJECTIVE: Use of ACM to assess structural connectivity modifications in MS brains and ascertain their relationship with the patients' Paced-Auditory-Serial-Addition-Test (PASAT) scores. METHODS: Relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) patients (n = 25) and controls (n = 25) underwent MRI at 3T, including conventional images, T1-weighted volumes and DW-MRI. Volumetric scans were coregistered to fractional anisotropy (FA) images, to obtain parenchymal FA maps for both white and grey matter. We initiated probabilistic tractography from all parenchymal voxels, obtaining ACM maps by counting the number of streamlines passing through each voxel, then normalizing by the total number of streamlines initiated. The ACM maps were transformed into standard space, for statistical use. RESULTS: RRMS patients had reduced grey matter volume and FA, consistent with previous literature. Also, we showed reduced ACM in the thalamus and in the head of the caudate nucleus, bilaterally. In our RRMS patients, ACM was associated with PASAT scores in the corpus callosum, right hippocampus and cerebellum. CONCLUSIONS: ACM opens a new perspective, clarifying the contribution of anatomical brain disconnection to clinical disabilities in MS.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Multiple Sclerosis

ISSN

1352-4585

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Issue

9

Volume

19

Page range

1161-1168

Department affiliated with

  • BSMS Neuroscience Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2013-05-13

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC