Using automated morphometry to detect associations between ERP latency and structural brain MRI in normal adults

Abstract

Despite the clinical significance of event-related potential (ERP) latency abnormalities, little attention has focused on the anatomic substrate of latency variability. Volume conduction models do not identify the anatomy responsible for delayed neural transmission between neural sources. To explore the anatomic substrate of ERP latency variability in normal adults using automated measures derived from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ERPs were recorded in the visual three-stimulus oddball task in 59 healthy participants. Latencies of the P3a and P3b components were measured at the vertex. Measures of local anatomic size in the brain were estimated from structural MRI, using tissue segmentation and deformation morphometry. A general linear model was fitted relating latency to measures of local anatomic size, covarying for intracranial vault volume. Longer P3b latencies were related to contractions in thalamus extending superiorly into the corpus callosum, white matter (WM) anterior to the central sulcus on the left and right, left temporal WM, the right anterior limb of the internal capsule extending into the lenticular nucleus, and larger cerebrospinal fluid volumes. There was no evidence for a relationship between gray matter (GM) volumes and P3b latency. Longer P3a latencies were related to contractions in left temporal WM, and left parietal GM and WM near the interhemispheric fissure. P3b latency variability is related chiefly to WM, thalamus, and lenticular nucleus, whereas P3a latency variability is not related as strongly to anatomy. These results imply that the WM connectivity between generators influences P3b latency more than the generators themselves do.

White matter alterations related to P300 abnormalities in individuals at high risk for psychosis: an MRI–EEG study

“…In line with these neuroanatomic considerations, 2 independent studies found that P300 amplitude and latency were positively correlated with the corpus callosum volume. 29,56 There is further evidence indicating a positive correlation between anisotropy values of the genu and P300 measures during a continuous performance test. 30 Second, we uncovered a positive association between P300 amplitude and the white matter volume underlying the right supramarginal gyrus extending into the right arcuate fasciculus.…”

“…27,28 Disruption of white matter tracts may thus alter the electrophysiologic response and perturb brain connectivity during the prepsychotic phases. A combined event-related potential (ERP) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study in healthy adults has confirmed significant correlations between P300 measures and white matter contractions, 29 whereas a recent study involving patients presenting with a first episode of psychosis has found specific correlations between anisotropy values and P300 measures. 30 Although there is independent evidence indicating both P300 and white matter alterations in patients at risk for psychosis, no formal study has properly tested the putative relation of these factors during the prepsychotic phases.…”

P300 and the Stroop Effect in Overweight Minority Adolescents

“…The absence of a change in amplitude may suggest that BMIP and PH are less reliably associated with gray matter dysfunction, indexed primarily by ERP amplitude, than with white matter dysfunction, indexed primarily by ERP latency [47] . Indeed, white matter abnormalities do appear to be the predomi- Fig.…”

A framework for in vivo quantification of regional brain folding in premature neonates

“…In this initial work we have used a single reference anatomy which was manually partitioned into left and right hemispheres. A multi-resolution B-Spline based spatial normalization, adapted from that described in [Studholme et al, 2004b,a] and as used in [Cardenas et al, 2005], was then applied to estimate a spatial transformation mapping from this reference to each subject MRI being studied. This transformation was then numerically inverted to allow the assignment of the nearest reference label to a given subject image voxel, which brought the voxelwize partitioning of the reference anatomy to the same space as the surface extracted from each infant.…”