Functional connectivity of the prefrontal cortex in Huntington's disease

Thiruvady, Dhananjay; Georgiou‐Karistianis, Nellie; Egan, Gary F.; Ray, Sid; Sritharan, Anusha; Farrow, Maree; Churchyard, Andrew; Chua, Phyllis; Bradshaw, John L.; Brawn, T-L; Cunnington, Ross

doi:10.1136/jnnp.2006.098368

Cited by 91 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…This hypothesis was not directly tested in this study, and it needs further direct investigation, e.g. by diffusion-tensor-imaging [Rosas et al, 2006] or functional connectivity methods [Thiruvady et al, 2007].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…However, the decreased activation of dorso-and ventrolateral regions in HD patients does not necessarily imply an intrinsic cortical pathology of prefrontal areas, since the lateral prefrontal cortex is interconnected with ventrolateral prefrontal, temporolimbic, striatal, and thalamic regions [Alexander et al, 1986]. Moreover, recent fMRI research suggests that poor cognitive performance in HD patients is associated with a loss of interhemispheric connectivity between lateral prefrontal and cingulate regions rather than by activation differences in circumscribed cortical areas [Thiruvady et al, 2007]. Thus, aberrant prefrontal activation in HD patients might alternatively reflect a functional impairment of prefrontostriatal circuits due to anatomical changes in subcortical regions and their corresponding tracts, or due to changes in functional connectivity [Voermans et al, 2004].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At present however, only a few functional neuroimaging studies have directly tested cognitive functions in HD patients using cognitive activation paradigms. While some studies have been able to demonstrate striatal dysfunction during a variety of tests requiring executive capacity [Clark et al, 2002;Deckel et al, 2000;Voermans et al, 2004], several authors have shown additional functional impairment of cortical regions including the prefrontal cortex [Clark et al, 2002;Thiruvady et al, 2007;Weinberger et al, 1988].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cortical dysfunction in patients with Huntington's disease during working memory performance

Wolf

Vasić

Schönfeldt‐Lecuona

et al. 2008

Human Brain Mapping

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Previous functional neuroimaging studies on executive function suggested multiple functionally aberrant cortical regions in patients with Huntington's disease (HD). However, little is known about the neural mechanisms of working memory (WM) function in this patient population. The objective of this study was to investigate the functional neuroanatomy of WM in HD patients. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging and a parametric verbal WM task to investigate cerebral function during WM performance in 16 healthy control subjects and 12 mild to moderate stage HD patients. We excluded incorrectly performed trials to control for potential accuracy-related activation confounds. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to control for confounding cortical and subcortical atrophy. We found that HD patients were slower and less accurate than healthy controls across all WM load levels. In addition, HD patients showed lower activation in the left dorso-and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, the left inferior parietal cortex, the left putamen, and the right cerebellum at high WM load levels only. VBM revealed gray matter differences in the bilateral caudate nucleus and the thalamus, as well as in inferior parietal and right lateral prefrontal regions. However, volumetric abnormalities in the patient group did not affect the activation differences obtained during WM task performance. These findings demonstrate that WM-related functional abnormalities in HD patients involve distinct WM network nodes associated with cognitive control and subvocal rehearsal. Moreover, aberrant cortical function in HD patients may occur in brain regions, which are relatively well preserved in terms of brain atrophy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cortical dysfunction in patients with Huntington's disease during working memory performance

Wolf

Vasić

Schönfeldt‐Lecuona

et al. 2008

Human Brain Mapping

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…10,14 Wolf and colleagues 21 found significant reduction in left frontoparietal and putamen connectivity during working memory. Thiruvady and colleagues 19 found that a cognitive interference task increased the connectivity between brain hemispheres in controls, but not in symp-HD individuals. The authors also reported significantly impaired connectivity between the anterior cingulate and lateral prefrontal regions bilaterally in symp-HD individuals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In patients with Huntington disease, there is some evidence for altered connectivity between brain regions both during cognitive task performance [18][19][20][21] and at rest. 10,14 Wolf and colleagues 21 found significant reduction in left frontoparietal and putamen connectivity during working memory.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%