Impact of cerebellar atrophy on cortical gray matter and cerebellar peduncles as assessed by voxel-based morphometry and high angular resolution diffusion imaging

Dayan, Michael; Olivito, Giusy; Molinari, Marco; Cercignani, Mara; Bozzali, Marco; Leggio, Maria

doi:10.11138/fneur/2016.31.4.239

Cited by 14 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Cerebellar WM damage has been shown to affect mainly the peridentate regions and middle cerebellar peduncle (MCP) (Della Nave et al, 2008b). Consistent with the hypothesis that cerebellar atrophy may affect also the regions connected with the cerebellum (Dayan et al, 2016), several supratentorial areas have been found to be altered in SCA2, such as the right orbito-frontal cortex, right temporo-mesial cortex, the primary sensorimotor cortex bilaterally, the right thalamus, the left precentral gyrus and inferior frontal operculum as well as inferior parietal and post-central gyri (Brenneis et al, 2003;Della Nave et al, 2008a). The supratentorial atrophy can be related to both a primary degenerative process associated to SCA2 disease and to secondary effect resulting from the cerebellar deafferentation (Brenneis et al, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Microstructural MRI Basis of the Cognitive Functions in Patients with Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 2

et al. 2017

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Spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease involving the cerebellum. The particular atrophy pattern results in some typical clinical features mainly including motor deficits. In addition, the presence of cognitive impairments, involving language, visuospatial and executive functions, has been also shown in SCA2 patients and it is now widely accepted as a feature of the disease. The aim of the study is to investigate the microstructural patterns and the anatomo-functional substrate that could account for the cognitive symptomatology observed in SCA2 patients. In the present study, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) based-tractography was performed to map the main cerebellar white matter (WM) bundles, such as Middle and Superior Cerebellar Peduncles, connecting cerebellum with higher order cerebral regions. Damage-related diffusivity measures were used to determine the pattern of pathological changes of cerebellar WM microstructure in patients affected by SCA2 and correlated with the patients' cognitive scores. Our results provide the first evidence that WM diffusivity is altered in the presence of the cerebellar cortical degeneration associated with SCA2 thus resulting in a cerebello-cerebral dysregulation that may account for the specificity of cognitive symptomatology observed in patients.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Microstructural MRI Basis of the Cognitive Functions in Patients with Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 2

et al. 2017

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“…This procedure allows more accurate coregistration, and hence may allow a better WM specific analysis of volume loss. Images were smoothed using a 8-mm FWHM Gaussian kernel according to Dayan et al [30].…”

Section: White Matter Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The MCP and SCP were reconstructed following the methods described by Dayan et al [30]. The main orientation in every voxel was determined according to the multifiber directions estimated in each voxel from the fiber orientation distribution functions (fODFs) calculated with either Q-ball imaging [37] or persistent angular structure (PAS) MRI [30,38]. The fODF calculation method chosen depended on the curvature and amount of crossing of each WM tract.…”

Section: Tractographymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The middle (MCP) and superior cerebellar peduncles (SCP) are the main WM bundles connecting the cerebellum with the cerebrum, being respectively the main input and output connections to/from the cerebellum [29]. Here, we reconstructed the middle cerebellar peduncle (MCP), and the left and right superior cerebellar peduncles separately (SCPL and SCPR) [30] and addressed the differences in FA, Dax, RD and MD in the three tracts between AD patients and HS.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cerebellar White Matter Disruption in Alzheimer’s Disease Patients: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study

Toniolo

Serra

Olivito

et al. 2020

JAD

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Telephone number: +44(0) 1273 873509; Fax number: +44 (0) 1273 876721; E mail address: m.bozzali@bsms.ac.uk Abstract The cognitive role of the cerebellum has recently gained much attention, and its pivotal role in Alzheimer's disease (AD) has now been widely recognized. Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) has been used to evaluate the disruption of the microstructural milieu in AD, and though several white matter (WM) tracts such as corpus callosum, inferior and superior longitudinal fasciculus, cingulum, fornix and uncinate fasciculus have been evaluated in AD, data on cerebellar WM tracts are currently lacking.We performed a tractography-based DTI reconstruction of the middle cerebellar peduncle (MCP), and the left and right superior cerebellar peduncles separately (SCPL and SCPR) and addressed the differences in fractional anisotropy (FA), axial diffusivity (Dax), radial diffusivity (RD) and mean diffusivity (MD) in the three tracts between 50 patients with AD and 25 healthy subjects (HS).We found that AD patients showed a lower FA and a higher RD compared to HS in MCP, SCPL and SCPR. Moreover, a higher MD was found in SCPR and SCPL and a higher Dax in SCPL. This result is important as it challenges the traditional view that WM bundles in the cerebellum are unaffected in AD and might identify new targets for therapeutic interventions.

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“…While this hypothesis remains to be validated, studying the STE signal provides exciting avenues for gaining further insight into changes in tissue microstructure in disorders associated with the cerebellum. dMRI studies have already shown changes in ataxia (Dayan et al, 2016;Salvatore et al, 2014), Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease (Mormina et al, 2017), where metrics such as mean diffusivity and diffusion-tensor (DT)-derived fractional anisotropy (FA) were studied. These studies mostly focused on cerebellar WM (e.g.…”

Section: Signal Representation and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The dot-compartment revealed? Diffusion MRI with ultra-strong gradients and spherical tensor encoding in the living human brain

Tax

Szczepankiewicz

Nilsson

et al. 2019

Preprint

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The so-called "dot-compartment" is conjectured in diffusion MRI to represent small spherical spaces, such as cell bodies, in which the diffusion is restricted in all directions. Previous investigations inferred its existence from data acquired with directional diffusion encoding which does not permit a straightforward separation of signals from 'sticks' (axons) and signals from 'dots'. Here we combine isotropic diffusion encoding with ultra-strong diffusion gradients (240 mT/m) to achieve high diffusionweightings with high signal to noise ratio, while suppressing signal arising from anisotropic water compartments with significant mobility along at least one axis (e.g., axons). A dot-compartment, defined to have apparent diffusion coefficient equal to zero and no exchange, would result in a nondecaying signal at very high b-values (b ≳ 7000 s/mm 2 ). With this unique experimental setup, a residual yet slowly decaying, signal above the noise floor for b-values as high as 15000 s/mm 2 was seen clearly in the cerebellar grey matter (GM), and in several white matter (WM) regions to some extent. Upper limits of the dot-signal-fraction were estimated to be ~2% in cerebellar GM and ~0.2% in WM. By relaxing the assumption of zero diffusivity, the signal at high b-values in cerebellar GM could be represented more accurately by an isotropic water pool with a low apparent diffusivity of 0.11 µm $ /ms and a substantial signal fraction of ~7-16%. This remaining signal at high b-values has potential to serve as a novel and simple marker for isotropically-restricted water compartments in cerebellar GM.

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Impact of cerebellar atrophy on cortical gray matter and cerebellar peduncles as assessed by voxel-based morphometry and high angular resolution diffusion imaging

Cited by 14 publications

References 46 publications

Microstructural MRI Basis of the Cognitive Functions in Patients with Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 2

Microstructural MRI Basis of the Cognitive Functions in Patients with Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 2

Cerebellar White Matter Disruption in Alzheimer’s Disease Patients: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study

The dot-compartment revealed? Diffusion MRI with ultra-strong gradients and spherical tensor encoding in the living human brain

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