Narrative comprehension is a perinatal linguistic ability which is more intuitive than reading activity. Whether there are specific shared brain regions for narrative comprehension and reading that ...are tuned to reading proficiency, even before reading is acquired, is the question of the current study. We acquired fMRI data during a narrative comprehension task at two age points, when children are age 5–7 (K-2nd grade) and later when the same children were age 11 (5th–7th grade). We then examined correlations between this fMRI data and reading and reading comprehension scores from the same children at age 11. We found that greater frontal and supramarginal gyrus (BA 40) activation in narrative comprehension at the age of 5–7 years old was associated with better word reading and reading comprehension scores at the age of 11. A shift towards temporal and occipital activation was found when correlating their narrative comprehension functional data at age 11, with reading scores at the same age point. We suggest that increased reliance on executive functions and auditory–visual networks when listening to stories before reading is acquired, facilitates reading proficiency in older age and may be a biomarker for future reading ability. Children, who rely on use of imagination/visualization as well as auditory processing for narrative comprehension when they reach age 11, also show greater reading abilities. Understanding concordant neural pathways supporting auditory narrative and reading comprehension might be guide for development of effective tools for reading intervention programs.
•Reliance on executive functions and auditory–visual facilitates reading proficiency.•Reading ability is associated with occipital activation in narrative comprehension.•Visualization/imagery might be used as a strategy for narrative comprehension.
The opioid epidemic has profoundly affected infants born in the United States, as in utero opioid exposure increases the risk of cognitive and behavioral problems in childhood. Scarce literature has ...evaluated prenatal brain development in fetuses with opioid exposure in utero (hereafter opioid-exposed fetuses).
The purpose of this study is to compare opioid-exposed fetuses and fetuses without opioid exposure (hereafter unexposed fetuses) in terms of 2D biometric measurements of the brain and additional pregnancy-related assessments on fetal MRI.
This prospective case-control study included patients in the third trimester of pregnancy who underwent investigational fetal MRI at one of three U.S. academic medical centers from July 1, 2020, through December 31, 2021. Fetuses were classified as opioid exposed or unexposed in utero. Fourteen 2D biometric measurements of the fetal brain were manually assessed and used to derive four indexes. Measurements and indexes were compared between the two groups by use of multivariable linear regression models, which were adjusted for gestational age (GA), fetal sex, and nicotine exposure. Additional pregnancy-related findings on MRI were evaluated.
The study included 65 women (mean age, 29.0 ± 5.5 SD years). A total of 28 fetuses (mean GA at the time of MRI, 32.2 ± 2.5 weeks) were opioid-exposed, and 37 fetuses (mean GA at the time of MRI, 31.9 ± 2.7 weeks) were unexposed. In the adjusted models, seven measurements were smaller (
< .05) in opioid-exposed fetuses than in unexposed fetuses: cerebral frontooccipital diameter (93.8 ± 7.4 vs 95.0 ± 8.6 mm), bone biparietal diameter (79.0 ± 6.0 vs 80.3 ± 7.1 mm), brain biparietal diameter (72.9 ± 7.7 vs 74.1 ± 8.6 mm), corpus callosum length (37.7 ± 4.0 vs 39.4 ± 3.7 mm), vermis height (18.2 ± 2.7 vs 18.8 ± 2.6 mm), anteroposterior pons measurement (11.6 ± 1.4 vs 12.1 ± 1.4 mm), and transverse cerebellar diameter (40.4 ± 5.1 vs 41.4 ± 6.0 mm). In addition, in the adjusted model, the frontoocccipital index was larger (
= .02) in opioid-exposed fetuses (0.04 ± 0.02) than in unexposed fetuses (0.04 ± 0.02). Remaining measures and indexes were not significantly different between the two groups (
> .05). Fetal motion, cervical length, and deepest vertical pocket of amniotic fluid were not significantly different (
> .05) between groups. Opioid-exposed fetuses, compared with unexposed fetuses, showed higher frequencies of both breech position (21% vs 3%,
= .03) and increased amniotic fluid volume (29% vs 8%,
= .04).
Fetuses with opioid exposure in utero had a smaller brain size and altered fetal physiology.
The findings provide insight into the impact of prenatal opioid exposure on fetal brain development.
Objective
The aim of this study was to determine the frequency‐dependent, spatiotemporal involvement of corticothalamic networks to the generation of absence seizures.
Methods
Magnetoencephalography ...recordings were obtained in 12 subjects (44 seizures) with untreated childhood absence seizures. Time‐frequency analysis of each seizure was performed to determine bandwidths with significant power at ictal onset. Source localization was then completed to determine brain regions contributing to generalized spike and wave discharges seen on electroencephalogram.
Results
Significant power in the time‐frequency analysis was seen within 1 to 20Hz, 20 to 70Hz, and 70 to 150Hz bandwidths. Source localization revealed that sources localized to the frontal cortex similarly for the low‐ and gamma‐frequency bandwidths, whereas at the low‐frequency bandwidth (3–20Hz) significantly more sources localized to the parietal cortex (odds ratio OR = 16.7). Cortical sources within the high‐frequency oscillation (HFO) bandwidth (70–150Hz) localized primarily to the frontal region compared to the parietal (OR = 7.32) or temporal (OR = 2.78) areas.
Interpretation
Neuromagnetic activity within frontal and parietal cortical regions provides further confirmation of hemodynamic changes reported using functional magnetic resonance imaging that have been associated with absence seizures. The frequency‐dependent nature of these networks has not previously been reported, and the presence of HFOs during absence seizures is a novel finding. Co‐occurring frontal and parietal corticothalamic networks may interact to produce a pathological state that contributes to the generation of spike and wave discharges. The clinical and pathophysiological implications of HFOs within the frontal cortical region are unclear and should be further investigated. Ann Neurol 2014;76:558–567
Despite its high prevalence and associated disability, the neural correlates of emotion processing in patients with functional (psychogenic) tremor (FT), the most common functional movement disorder, ...remain poorly understood.
In this cross sectional functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study at 4T, 27 subjects with FT, 16 with essential tremor (ET), and 25 healthy controls (HCs) underwent a finger-tapping motor task, a basic-emotion task, and an intense-emotion task to probe motor and emotion circuitries. Anatomical and functional MRI data were processed with FSL (FMRIB Software Library) and AFNI (Analysis of Functional Neuroimages), followed by seed-to-seed connectivity analyses using anatomical regions defined from the Harvard-Oxford subcortical atlas; all analyses were corrected for multiple comparisons.
After controlling for depression scores and correcting for multiple comparisons, the FT group showed increased activation in the right cerebellum compared to ET during the motor task; and increased activation in the paracingulate gyrus and left Heschl's gyrus compared with HC with decreased activation in the right precentral gyrus compared with ET during the basic-emotion task. No significant differences were found after adjusting for multiple comparisons during the intense-emotion task but increase in connectivity between the left amygdala and left middle frontal gyrus survived corrections in the FT subjects during this task, compared to HC.
In response to emotional stimuli, functional tremor is associated with alterations in activation and functional connectivity in networks involved in emotion processing and theory of mind. These findings may be relevant to the pathophysiology of functional movement disorders.
•Patients with functional tremor exhibit altered emotion processing circuitry.•There is increased activation in the paracingulate gyrus after emotional stimuli.•Increased connectivity between the left amygdala and middle frontal gyrus•Functional disorders may be associated with disturbances in the theory of mind.
Children born with congenital heart disease (CHD) have seen a dramatic decrease in mortality thanks to surgical innovations. However, there are numerous risk factors associated with CHD that can ...disrupt neurodevelopment. Recent studies have found that psychological deficits and structural brain abnormalities persist into adulthood. The goal of the current study was to investigate white matter connectivity in early school-age children (6-11 years), born with complex cyanotic CHD (single ventricle physiology), who have undergone Fontan palliation, compared to a group of heart-healthy, typically developing controls (TPC). Additionally, we investigated associations between white matter tract connectivity and measures on a comprehensive neuropsychological battery within each group. Our results suggest CHD patients exhibit widespread decreases in white matter connectivity, and the extent of these decreases is related to performance in several cognitive domains. Analysis of network topology showed that hub distribution was more extensive and bilateral in the TPC group. Our results are consistent with previous studies suggesting perinatal ischemia leads to white matter lesions and delayed maturation.
A left perisylvian network is known to support language in healthy adults. Low-beta (13-23 Hz) event-related desynchrony (ERD) has been observed during verb generation, at approximately 700-1200 ms ...post-stimulus presentation in past studies; the signal is known to reflect increased neuronal firing and metabolic demand during language production. In contrast, concurrent beta event-related synchrony (ERS) is thought to reflect neuronal inhibition but has not been well studied in the context of language. Further, while low-beta ERD for expressive language has been found to gradually shift from bilateral in childhood to left hemispheric by early adulthood, developmental lateralization of ERS has not been established. We used magnetoencephalography to study low beta ERS lateralization in a group of children and adolescents (n = 78), aged 4 to less than 19 years, who performed covert verb generation. We found that the youngest children had bilateral ERD and ERS. By adolescence, low-beta ERD was predominantly left lateralized in perisylvian cortex (i.e., Broca's and Wernicke's regions), while beta ERS was predominantly right lateralized. Increasing lateralization was significantly correlated to age for both ERD (Spearman's r = 0.45, p < 0.01) and ERS (Spearman's r = - 0.44, p < 0.01). Interestingly, while ERD lateralized in a linear manner, ERS lateralization followed a nonlinear trajectory, suggesting distinct developmental trajectories. Implications to early-age neuroplasticity and neuronal inhibition are discussed.
Prenatal opioid exposure has been linked to altered neurodevelopment and visual problems such as strabismus and nystagmus. The neural substrate underlying these alterations is unclear. Resting-state ...functional connectivity MRI (rsfMRI) is an advanced and well-established technique to evaluate brain networks. Few studies have examined the effects of prenatal opioid exposure on resting-state network connectivity in infancy. In this pilot study, we characterized network connectivity in opioid-exposed infants (n = 19) and controls (n = 20) between 4–8 weeks of age using both a whole-brain connectomic approach and a seed-based approach. Prenatal opioid exposure was associated with differences in distribution of betweenness centrality and connection length, with positive connections unique to each group significantly longer than common connections. The unique connections in the opioid-exposed group were more often inter-network connections while unique connections in controls and connections common to both groups were more often intra-network. The opioid-exposed group had smaller network volumes particularly in the primary visual network, but similar network strength as controls. Network topologies as determined by dice similarity index were different between groups, particularly in visual and executive control networks. These results may provide insight into the neural basis for the developmental and visual problems associated with prenatal opioid exposure.
Listening difficulties (LiD) are common in children with and without hearing loss. Impaired interactions between the two ears have been proposed as an important component of LiD when there is no ...hearing loss, also known as auditory processing disorder (APD). We examined the ability of 6-13 year old (y.o.) children with normal audiometric thresholds to identify and selectively attend to dichotically presented CV syllables using the Bergen Dichotic Listening Test (BDLT; www.dichoticlistening.com). Children were recruited as typically developing (TD;
= 39) or having LiD (
= 35) based primarily on composite score of the ECLiPS caregiver report. Different single syllables (ba, da, ga, pa, ta, ka) were presented simultaneously to each ear (6 × 36 trials). Children reported the syllable heard most clearly (non-forced, NF) or the syllable presented to the right forced right (FR) or left forced left (FL) ear. Interaural level differences (ILDs) manipulated bottom-up perceptual salience. Dichotic listening (DL) data correct responses, laterality index (LI) were analyzed initially by group (LiD, TD), age, report method (NF, FR, FL), and ILD (0, ± 15 dB) and compared with speech-in-noise thresholds (LiSN-S) and cognitive performance (NIH Toolbox). fMRI measured brain activation produced by a receptive speech task that segregated speech, phonetic, and intelligibility components. Some activated areas planum temporale (PT), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) were correlated with dichotic results in TD children only. Neither group, age, nor report method affected the LI of right/left recall. However, a significant interaction was found between ear, group, and ILD. Laterality indices were small and tended to increase with age, as previously reported. Children with LiD had significantly larger mean LIs than TD children for stimuli with ILDs, especially those favoring the left ear. Neural activity associated with Speech, Phonetic, and Intelligibility sentence cues did not differ significantly between groups. Significant correlations between brain activity level and BDLT were found in several frontal and temporal locations for the TD but not for the LiD group. Overall, the children with LiD had only subtle differences from TD children in the BDLT, and correspondingly minor changes in brain activation.
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