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Neuroimaging: Current Position and Future Directions

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A special issue of Biomedicines (ISSN 2227-9059). This special issue belongs to the section "Neurobiology and Clinical Neuroscience".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 November 2023) | Viewed by 8901

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Camillo Porcaro

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Guest Editor

Department of Neuroscience and Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padova, Padova, Italy
Interests: transcranial electrical stimulation (tES); independent component analysis (ICA); functional source separation (FSS); resting-state networks (RSN); EEG; fMRI; MEG; fractal analysis (FA); brain-computer interface (BCI)

Dr. Marco Marino

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Guest Editor

KU Leuven, Movement Control & Neuroplasticity Research Group, Tervuursevest 101 - Box 1501, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
Interests: EEG; fMRI; simultaneous EEG-fMRI; resting-state networks (RSN); functional connectivity; neurophysiology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Recent decades have witnessed a rise in neuroimaging techniques, increasing our understanding of the brain structure and functions. This was possible due to the development of increasingly more advanced research tools for performing brain mapping based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). However, despite the large body of literature studying functional brain connectivity, the identification of the link between these neuroimaging findings and behaviour remains hindered. Additionally, the translation of research findings into clinical practice, with the development of targeted biomarkers, represents one of the significant challenges in current neuroimaging research. Thus, addressing these two issues is pivotal for enhancing the impact of future neuroscience investigations.

This Special Issue aims to provide an overview of cutting-edge neuroimaging methods, oriented towards understanding brain functioning, its association with behaviour and translating fundamental neuroscience discoveries into clinical practice. To achieve a comprehensive perspective, we welcome original research and review papers investigating neuroplasticity and depicting single-subject inferences from the combination of neural profiles and behavioural correlations in healthy and pathological brains.

Dr. Camillo Porcaro
Dr. Marco Marino
Guest Editors

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Keywords

EEG
MEG
fMRI
functional connectivity
brain mapping
neuroimaging
neurophysiology
neuroplasticity
biomarkers

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 3109 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

by Marina Khodanovich, Mikhail Svetlik, Anna Naumova, Daria Kamaeva, Anna Usova, Marina Kudabaeva, Tatyana Anan’ina, Irina Wasserlauf, Valentina Pashkevich, Marina Moshkina, Victoria Obukhovskaya, Nadezhda Kataeva, Anastasia Levina, Yana Tumentceva and Vasily Yarnykh

Biomedicines 2024, 12(1), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines12010061 - 27 Dec 2023

Viewed by 1261

Abstract

Age-related myelination decrease is considered one of the likely mechanisms of cognitive decline. The present preliminary study is based on the longitudinal assessment of global and regional myelination of the normal adult human brain using fast macromolecular fraction (MPF) mapping. Additional markers were age-related changes in white matter (WM) hyperintensities on FLAIR-MRI and the levels of anti-myelin autoantibodies in serum. Eleven healthy subjects (33–60 years in the first study) were scanned twice, seven years apart. An age-related decrease in MPF was found in global WM, grey matter (GM), and mixed WM–GM, as well as in 48 out of 82 examined WM and GM regions. The greatest decrease in MPF was observed for the frontal WM (2–5%), genu of the corpus callosum (CC) (4.0%), and caudate nucleus (5.9%). The age-related decrease in MPF significantly correlated with an increase in the level of antibodies against myelin basic protein (MBP) in serum (r = 0.69 and r = 0.63 for global WM and mixed WM–GM, correspondingly). The volume of FLAIR hyperintensities increased with age but did not correlate with MPF changes and the levels of anti-myelin antibodies. MPF mapping showed high sensitivity to age-related changes in brain myelination, providing the feasibility of this method in clinics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neuroimaging: Current Position and Future Directions)

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11 pages, 569 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Lowered Delta Activity in Post-COVID-19 Patients with Fatigue and Cognitive Impairment

by Paola Ortelli, Angelica Quercia, Antonio Cerasa, Sabrina Dezi, Davide Ferrazzoli, Luca Sebastianelli, Leopold Saltuari, Viviana Versace and Angelo Quartarone

Biomedicines 2023, 11(8), 2228; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines11082228 - 08 Aug 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1507

Abstract

In post-COVID-19 syndrome (PCS), neurocognitive symptoms and fatigue are often associated with alterations in electroencephalographic (EEG) activity. The present study investigates the brain source activity at rest in PCS patients (PCS-pts) perceiving cognitive deficits and fatigue. A total of 18 PCS-pts and 18 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled. A Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Perceived Cognitive Difficulties Scale (PDCS) and Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) were administered for assessing the symptoms’ severity. Brain activity at rest, both with open (OE) and closed eyes (CE), was recorded by high-density EEG (Hd-EEG) and localized by source estimation. Compared to HCs, PCS-pts exhibited worse performance in executive functions, language and memory, and reported higher levels of fatigue. At resting OE state, PCS-pts showed lower delta source activity over brain regions known to be associated with executive processes, and these changes were negatively associated with PDCS scores. Consistent with recent literature data, our findings could indicate a dysfunction in the neuronal networks involved in executive functions in PCS-pts complaining of fatigue and cognitive impairment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neuroimaging: Current Position and Future Directions)

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15 pages, 3415 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Language Network Connectivity of Euthymic Bipolar Patients Is Altered at Rest and during a Verbal Fluency Task

by Zaira Romeo, Marco Marino, Dante Mantini, Alessandro Angrilli and Chiara Spironelli

Biomedicines 2023, 11(6), 1647; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines11061647 - 06 Jun 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1226

Abstract

Abnormalities of the Language Network (LN) have been found in different psychiatric conditions (e.g., schizophrenia and bipolar disorder), supporting the hypothesis that language plays a central role in a high-level integration/connectivity of second-level cognitive processes and the underlying cortical regions. This view implies a continuum of shared neural alterations along the psychotic disorder spectrum. In particular, bipolar disorder (BD) patients were recently documented to have an altered LN asymmetry during resting state. The extent to which the LN architecture is altered and stable also during a language task has yet to be investigated. To address this question, we analyzed fMRI data recorded during an open-eyes resting state session and a silent verbal fluency task in 16 euthymic BD patients and 16 matched healthy controls (HC). Functional connectivity in the LN of both groups was computed using spatial independent component analysis, and group comparisons were carried out to assess the network organization during both rest and active linguistic task conditions. The LN of BD patients involved left and right brain areas during both resting state and linguistic task. Compared to the left-lateralized network found in HC, the BD group was characterized by two anterior clusters (in left frontal and right temporo-insular regions) and the disengagement of the posterior language areas, especially during the verbal fluency task. Our findings support the hypothesis that reduced language lateralization may represent a biological marker across different psychotic disorders and that the altered language network connectivity found at rest in bipolar patients is stable and pervasive as it is also impaired during a verbal fluency task. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neuroimaging: Current Position and Future Directions)

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19 pages, 3183 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Seeking the Amygdala: Novel Use of Diffusion Tensor Imaging to Delineate the Basolateral Amygdala

by Andre Obenaus, Eli Kinney-Lang, Amandine Jullienne, Elizabeth Haddad, Kara M. Wendel, A. Duke Shereen, Ana Solodkin, Jeffrey F. Dunn and Tallie Z. Baram

Biomedicines 2023, 11(2), 535; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines11020535 - 13 Feb 2023

Viewed by 2398

Abstract

The amygdaloid complex, including the basolateral nucleus (BLA), contributes crucially to emotional and cognitive brain functions, and is a major target of research in both humans and rodents. However, delineating structural amygdala plasticity in both normal and disease-related contexts using neuroimaging has been hampered by the difficulty of unequivocally identifying the boundaries of the BLA. This challenge is a result of the poor contrast between BLA and the surrounding gray matter, including other amygdala nuclei. Here, we describe a novel diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) approach to enhance contrast, enabling the optimal identification of BLA in the rodent brain from magnetic resonance (MR) images. We employed this methodology together with a slice-shifting approach to accurately measure BLA volumes. We then validated the results by direct comparison to both histological and cellular-identity (parvalbumin)-based conventional techniques for defining BLA in the same brains used for MRI. We also confirmed BLA connectivity targets using DTI-based tractography. The novel approach enables the accurate and reliable delineation of BLA. Because this nucleus is involved in and changed by developmental, degenerative and adaptive processes, the instruments provided here should be highly useful to a broad range of neuroimaging studies. Finally, the principles used here are readily applicable to numerous brain regions and across species. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neuroimaging: Current Position and Future Directions)

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7 pages, 1030 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Increased Subcortical Sodium Levels in Patients with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

by Jannik Prasuhn, Martin Göttlich, Sinja S. Großer, Katharina Reuther, Britt Ebeling, Christina Bodemann, Henrike Hanssen, Armin M. Nagel and Norbert Brüggemann

Biomedicines 2022, 10(7), 1728; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines10071728 - 18 Jul 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1289

Abstract

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disease characterized by an aggressive disease course. Total and intracellular-weighted sodium imaging (²³Na-MRI) is a promising method for investigating neurodegeneration in vivo. We enrolled 10 patients with PSP and 20 age- and gender-matched healthy control subjects; all study subjects underwent a neurological examination, whole-brain structural, and (total and intracellular-weighted) ²³Na-MRI. Voxel-wise analyses revealed increased brainstem total sodium content in PSP that correlated with disease severity. The ROI-wise analysis highlighted additional sodium level changes in other regions implicated in the pathophysiology of PSP. ²³Na-MRI yields substantial benefits for the diagnostic workup of patients with PSP and adds complementary information on the underlying neurodegenerative tissue changes in PSP. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neuroimaging: Current Position and Future Directions)

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