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INTRODUCTION: Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) can be phenotypically divided into behavioral variant FTD (bvFTD), nonfluent variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA), and semantic variant PPA (svPPA). However, the neural underpinnings of this phenotypic heterogeneity remain elusive. METHODS: Cortical morphology, white matter hyperintensities (WMH), diffusion tensor image analysis along the perivascular space (DTI-ALPS), and their interrelationships were assessed in subtypes of FTD. Neuroimaging-transcriptional analyses on the regional cortical morphological deviances among subtypes were also performed. RESULTS: Changes in cortical thickness, surface area, gyrification, WMH, and DTI-ALPS were subtype-specific in FTD. The three morphologic indices are related to whole-brain WMH volume and cognitive performance, while cortical thickness is related to DTI-ALPS. Neuroimaging-transcriptional analyses identified key biological pathways linked to the formation and/or spread of TDP-43/tau pathologies. DISCUSSION: We found subtype-specific changes in cortical morphology, WMH, and glymphatic function in FTD. Our findings have the potential to contribute to the development of personalized predictions and treatment strategies for this disorder. HIGHLIGHTS: Cortical morphologic changes, white matter hyperintensities (WMH), and glymphatic dysfunction are subtype-specific. Cortical morphologic changes, WMH, and glymphatic dysfunction are inter-correlated. Cortical morphologic changes and WMH burden contribute to cognitive impairments.

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A mounting body of evidences suggests that patients with chronic heart failure (HF) frequently experience cognitive impairments, but the neuroanatomical mechanism underlying these impairments remains elusive. In this retrospective study, 49 chronic HF patients and 49 healthy controls (HCs) underwent brain structural MRI scans and cognitive assessments. Cortical morphology index (cortical thickness, complexity, sulcal depth and gyrification) were evaluated. Correlations between cortical morphology and cognitive scores and clinical variables were explored. Logistic regression analysis was employed to identify risk factors for predicting 3-year major adverse cardiovascular events. Compared with HCs, patients with chronic HF exhibited decreased cognitive scores (p < .001) and decreased cortical thickness, sulcal depth and gyrification in brain regions involved cognition, sensorimotor, autonomic nervous system (family-wise error correction, all p values <.05). Notably, HF duration and New York Heart Association (NYHA) demonstrated negative correlations with abnormal cortex morphology, particularly HF duration and thickness in left precentral gyrus (r = -.387, p = .006). Cortical morphology characteristics exhibited positive associations with global cognition, particularly cortical thickness in left pars opercularis (r = .476, p < .001). NYHA class is an independent risk factor for adverse outcome (p = .001). The observed correlation between abnormal cortical morphology and global cognition suggested that cortical morphology may serve as a promising imaging biomarker and provide insights into neuroanatomical underpinnings of cognitive impairment in patients with chronic HF.

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Objective:To investigate the characteristics of cortical morphology in children with attention defi-cit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD)and those with oppositional defiant disorder(ODD)from both categorical and dimensional analyses.Methods:A total of 72 children were enrolled,including 16 children with ADHD and ODD,20 children with ADHD without ODD,and 36 age-gender-matched normal children.The diagnoses were made ac-cording to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,Fourth Edition(DSM-Ⅳ)criteria.The Chi-nese Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children(C-WISC)was used to access intelligence quotient.All subjects par-ticipated in the magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)scan.The features of cortical morphology were determined using FreeSurfer software.Results:Children with ADHD and ODD[(6 528.1±857.5)mm3 vs.(7 591.2±657.3)]and children with ADHD only[(6 867.2±41.3)mm3 vs.(7 591.2±657.3)mm3]had smaller volume in the left later-al superior temporal gyrus(P＜0.05)than controls.No difference was found between ADHD with ODD group and ADHD without ODD group.There was no correlation between the cortical volume of left lateral superior temporal gyrus and ODD symptoms.Conclusion:The reduced cortical volume of left lateral superior temporal gyrus may be an important indication of the abnormal brain structure of ADHD in children.And comorbid status of ODD dose not change this structural variation.

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BACKGROUND: s: Previous studies have reported that patients with sleep disorders have altered brain cortical structures. However, the causality has not been determined. We performed a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) to reveal the causal effect of sleep disorders on brain cortical structure. METHODS: We included as exposures 11 phenotypes of sleep disorders including subjective and objective sleep duration, insomnia symptom and poor sleep efficiency, daytime sleepiness (narcolepsy)/napping, morning/evening preference, and four sleep breathing related traits from nine European-descent genome-wide association studies (GWASs). Further, outcome variables were provided by ENIGMA Consortium GWAS for full brain and 34 region-specific cortical thickness (TH) and surface area (SA) of grey matter. Inverse-variance weighted (IVW) was used as the primary estimate whereas alternative MR methods were implemented as sensitivity analysis approaches to ensure results robustness. RESULTS: At the global level, both self-reported or accelerometer-measured shorter sleep duration decreases the thickness of full brain both derived from self-reported data (ßIVW = 0.03 mm, standard error (SE) = 0.02, P = 0.038; ßIVW = 0.02 mm, SE = 0.01, P = 0.010). At the functional level, there were 66 associations of suggestive evidence of causality. Notably, one robust evidence after multiple testing correction (1518 tests) suggests the without global weighted SA of superior parietal lobule was influenced significantly by sleep efficiency (ßIVW = -285.28 mm2, SE = 68.59, P = 3.2 × 10-5). CONCLUSIONS: We found significant evidence that shorter sleep duration, as estimated by self-reported interview and accelerometer measurements, was causally associated with atrophy in the entire human brain.

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PURPOSE: To establish a model for predicting mild cognitive impairment (MCI) progression to Alzheimer's disease (AD) using morphological features extracted from a joint analysis of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and surface-based morphometry (SBM). METHODS: We analyzed data from 121 MCI patients from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, 32 of whom progressed to AD during a 4-year follow-up period and were classified as the progression group, while the remaining 89 were classified as the non-progression group. Patients were divided into a training set (n = 84) and a testing set (n = 37). Morphological features measured by VBM and SBM were extracted from the cortex of the training set and dimensionally reduced to construct morphological biomarkers using machine learning methods, which were combined with clinical data to build a multimodal combinatorial model. The model's performance was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curves on the testing set. RESULTS: The Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS) score, apolipoprotein E (APOE4), and morphological biomarkers were independent predictors of MCI progression to AD. The combinatorial model based on the independent predictors had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.866 in the training set and 0.828 in the testing set, with sensitivities of 0.773 and 0.900 and specificities of 0.903 and 0.747, respectively. The number of MCI patients classified as high-risk for progression to AD was significantly different from those classified as low-risk in the training set, testing set, and entire dataset, according to the combinatorial model (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The combinatorial model based on cortical morphological features can identify high-risk MCI patients likely to progress to AD, potentially providing an effective tool for clinical screening.

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Neuroimaging can capture brain restructuring after anterior temporal lobe resection (ATLR), a surgical procedure to treat drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Here, we examine the effects of this surgery on brain morphology measured in recently-proposed independent variables. We studied 101 individuals with TLE (55 left, 46 right onset) who underwent ATLR. For each individual we considered one pre-surgical MRI and one follow-up MRI 2-13 months after surgery. We used a surface-based method to locally compute traditional morphological variables, and the independent measures K, I, and S, where K measures white matter tension, I captures isometric scaling, and S contains the remaining information about cortical shape. A normative model trained on data from 924 healthy controls was used to debias the data and account for healthy ageing effects occurring during scans. A SurfStat random field theory clustering approach assessed changes across the cortex caused by ATLR. Compared to preoperative data, surgery had marked effects on all morphological measures. Ipsilateral effects were located in the orbitofrontal and inferior frontal gyri, the pre- and postcentral gyri and supramarginal gyrus, and the lateral occipital gyrus and lingual cortex. Contralateral effects were in the lateral occipital gyrus, and inferior frontal gyrus and frontal pole. The restructuring following ATLR is reflected in widespread morphological changes, mainly in regions near the resection, but also remotely in regions that are structurally connected to the anterior temporal lobe. The causes could include mechanical effects, Wallerian degeneration, or compensatory plasticity. The study of independent measures revealed additional effects compared to traditional measures.

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PURPOSE: To explore the effects of standard radiotherapy on cortical morphology and its potential transcriptional expression, and to determine the predictive power of cortical morphological measurement at the early stage for radiation necrosis (RN) occurrence within 3 years post-radiotherapy in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). METHODS: 185 NPC patients participated. Pre-treatment and post-radiotherapy (1-3 months) structural MRI were collected longitudinally and prospectively. Multiple cortical morphological indices were compared between pre-treatment and post-radiotherapy. Brain-wide gene expression was used to assess the transcriptional profiles associated with radiation-induced cortical morphological changes. Machine learning was used to construct predictive models for RN with cortical morphological alterations at the early stage. RESULTS: Relative to pre-treatment, NPC patients exhibited a widespread reduction in cortical volume (CV) and cortical thickness (CT) post-radiotherapy (p < 0.001). Partial least squares regression analysis revealed that radiotherapy-related cortical atrophy was closely related to transcriptional profiles (p < 0.001), with the most correlated genes enriched in ATPase Na+/K+ transporting alpha-1 and alpha-3 polypeptide and respiratory electron transport chain. Furthermore, models constructed with cortical morphological features at 1-3 months post-radiotherapy had favorable predictive power for RN occurrence in NPC patients within 3-year follow-up, the area under the curve was 0.854 and 0.843 for CV and CT, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: NPC patients exhibited widespread cortical atrophy at 1-3 months post-radiotherapy, which was closely correlated with dysfunction of the ATPase Na+/K+ transporting alpha-1 and alpha-3 polypeptide and respiratory electron transport chain. Cortical morphology at 1-3 months post-radiotherapy may serve as an early biomarker for identifying RN.

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The Cortical 3-Hinges Folding Pattern (i.e., 3-Hinges) is one of the brain's hallmarks, and it is of great reference for predicting human intelligence, diagnosing eurological diseases and understanding the brain functional structure differences among gender. Given the significant morphological variability among individuals, it is challenging to identify 3-Hinges, but current 3-Hinges researches are mainly based on the computationally expensive Gyral-net method. To address this challenge, this paper aims to develop a deep network model to realize the fast identification of 3-Hinges based on cortical morphological and structural features. The main work includes: (1) The morphological and structural features of the cerebral cortex are extracted to relieve the imbalance between the number of 3-Hinges and each brain image's voxels; (2) The feature vector is constructed with the K nearest neighbor algorithm from the extracted scattered features of the morphological and structural features to alleviate over-fitting in training; (3) The squeeze excitation module combined with the deep U-shaped network structure is used to learn the correlation of the channels among the feature vectors; (4) The functional structure roles that 3-Hinges plays between adolescent males and females are discussed in this work. The experimental results on both adolescent and adult MRI datasets show that the proposed model achieves better performance in terms of time consumption. Moreover, this paper reveals that cortical sulcus information plays a critical role in the procedure of identification, and the cortical thickness, cortical surface area, and volume characteristics can supplement valuable information for 3-Hinges identification to some extent. Furthermore, there are significant structural differences on 3-Hinges among adolescent gender.

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Background: The impacts of age and sex on brain structures related to cognitive function may be important for understanding the role of aging in Alzheimer disease for both sexes. We intended to investigate the age and sex differences of cortical morphology in middle-aged and older adults and their relationships with the decline of cognitive function. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we examined the cortical morphology in 204 healthy middle-aged and older adult participants aged 45 to 89 years using structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) data from the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study data set. Brain cortical thickness, surface complexity, and gyrification index were analyzed through a completely automated surface-based morphometric analysis using the CAT12 toolbox. Furthermore, we explored the correlation between cortical morphology differences and test scores for processing speed and working memory. Results: There were no significant interactions of age and sex with cortical thickness, fractal dimension, or gyrification index. Rather, we found that both males and females showed age-related decreases in cortical thickness, fractal dimension, and gyrification index. There were significant sex differences in the fractal dimension in middle-aged participants and the gyrification index in older adult participants. In addition, there were significant positive correlations between the cortical thickness of the right superior frontal gyrus and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)-III Letter-Number Sequencing test scores in males (r=0.394; P<0.001; 95% CI for r values 0.216-0.577) and females (r=0.344; P<0.001; 95% CI for r values 0.197-0.491), respectively. Furthermore, a significant relationship between the gyrification index of the right supramarginal gyrus (SupraMG) and WAIS-III Digit Symbol test scores was observed in older adult participants (r=0.375; P<0.001; 95% CI for r values 0.203-0.522). Conclusions: The results suggest that, compared with males, females have more extensive differences in cortical morphology. The gyrification index of the right SupraMG can be used as an imaging marker of sexual cognitive differences between males and females in older adults. This study helps to further understand sex differences in the aging of the brain and cognition.

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Introduction: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been studied as an adjunctive treatment option for substance use disorders (SUDs). Alterations in brain structure following SUD may change tDCS-induced electric field (EF) and subsequent responses; however, group-level differences between healthy controls (HC) and participants with SUDs in terms of EF and its association with cortical architecture have not yet been modeled quantitatively. This study provides a methodology for group-level analysis of computational head models to investigate the influence of cortical morphology metrics on EFs. Methods: Whole-brain surface-based morphology was conducted, and cortical thickness, volume, and surface area were compared between participants with cannabis use disorders (CUD) (n=20) and age-matched HC (n=22). Meanwhile, EFs were simulated for bilateral tDCS over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The effects of structural alterations on EF distribution were investigated based on individualized computational head models. Results: Regarding EF, no significant difference was found within the prefrontal cortex; however, EFs were significantly different in left-postcentral and right-superior temporal gyrus (P<0.05) with higher levels of variance in CUD compared to HC [F(39, 43)=5.31, P<0.0001, C=0.95]. Significant differences were observed in cortical area (caudal anterior cingulate and rostral middle frontal), thickness (lateral orbitofrontal), and volume (paracentral and fusiform) between the two groups. Conclusion: Brain morphology and tDCS-induced EFs may be changed following CUD; however, differences between CUD and HCs in EFs do not always overlap with brain areas that show structural alterations. To sufficiently modulate stimulation targets, whether individuals with CUD need different stimulation doses based on tDCS target location should be checked.

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The fetal brains experience rapid and complex development in utero during the second and third trimesters. In utero MRI of the fetal brain in this period enables us to quantify normal fetal brain development in the spatiotemporal domain. In this study, we established a high-quality spatiotemporal atlas between 23 and 38 weeks gestational age (GA) from 90 healthy Chinese human fetuses of both sexes using a pairwise and groupwise registration pipeline. We quantified the fetal cortical morphology indices and characterized their spatiotemporal developmental pattern. The cortical thickness exhibited a biphasic pattern that first increased and then decreased; the curvature fitted well into the Gompertz growth model; sulcal depth increased linearly, while surface area expanded exponentially. The cortical thickness and curvature trajectories consistently pointed to a characteristic time point around GA of 31 weeks. The characteristic GA and growth rate obtained from individual cortical regions suggested a central-to-peripheral developmental gradient, with the earliest development in the parietal lobe, and we also observed a superior-to-inferior gradient within the temporal lobe. These findings may be linked to biophysical events, such as dendritic arborization and thalamocortical fibers ingrowth. The proposed atlas was also compared with an existing fetal atlas from a white/mixed population. Finally, we examined the structural asymmetry of the fetal brains and found extensive asymmetry that dynamically changed with development. The current study depicted a comprehensive profile of fetal cortical development, and the established atlas could be used as a normative reference for neurodevelopmental and diagnostic purposes, especially in the Chinese population.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We generated a high-quality 4D spatiotemporal atlas of the normal fetal brain development from 23 to 38 gestational weeks in a Chinese population and characterized the spatiotemporal developmental pattern of cortical morphology. According to the cortical development trajectories, the fetal cerebral cortex development follows a central-to-peripheral developmental gradient that may be related to the underlying cellular events. The majority of cortical regions already exhibit significant asymmetry during the fetal period.

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Purpose: To investigate cortical differences, age-related cortical differences, and structural covariance differences between children with intermittent exotropia (IXT) and healthy controls (HCs) using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methods: Sixteen IXT patients and 16 HCs underwent MRI using a 3-T MR scanner. FreeSurfer software was used to obtain measures of cortical volume, thickness, and surface area. Group differences in cortical thickness, volume and surface area were examined using a general linear model with intracranial volume (ICV), age and sex as covariates. Then, the age-related cortical differences between the two groups and structural covariance in abnormal morphometric changes were examined. Results: Compared to HCs, IXT patients demonstrated significantly decreased surface area in the left primary visual cortex (PVC), and increased surface area in the left inferior temporal cortex (ITC). We also found increased cortical thickness in the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), right middle temporal cortex (MT), and right inferior frontal cortex (IFC). No significant differences were found in cortical volume between the two groups. There were several negative correlations between neuroanatomic measurements and age in the HC group that were not observed in the IXT group. In addition, we identified altered patterns of structural correlations across brain regions in patients with IXT. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this study is the first to characterize the cortical morphometry of the children and adolescents with IXT. Based on our results, children and adolescents with IXT exhibited significant alterations in the PVC and association cortices, different cortical morphometric development patterns, and disrupted structural covariance across brain regions.

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There is growing evidence that chemotherapy may have a significant impact on the brains of breast cancer patients, causing changes in cortical morphology. However, early morphological alterations induced by chemotherapy in breast cancer patients are unclear. To investigate the patterns of those alterations, we compared female breast cancer patients (n = 45) longitudinally before (time point 0, TP0) and after (time point 1, TP1) the first cycle of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and surface-based morphometry (SBM). VBM and SBM alteration data underwent correlation analysis. We also compared cognition-related neuropsychological tests in the breast cancer patients between TP0 and TP1. Reductions in gray matter volume, cortical thickness, sulcal depth, and gyrification index were found in most brain areas, while increments were found to be mainly concentrated in and around the hippocampus. Reductions of fractal dimension mainly occurred in the limbic and occipital lobes, while increments mainly occurred in the anterior and posterior central gyrus. Significant correlations were found between altered VBM and altered SBM mainly in the bilateral superior frontal gyrus. We found no significant differences in the cognition-related neuropsychological tests before and after chemotherapy. The altered brain regions are in line with those associated with impaired cognitive domains in previous studies. We conclude that breast cancer patients showed widespread morphological alterations soon after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, despite an absence of cognitive impairments. The affected brain regions may indicate major targets of early brain damage after chemotherapy.

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Purpose: Insomnia is a recognized feature of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The underlying neural substrate of insomnia in GAD is still unclear. Cortical folding is a reliable index and possibly an endophenotype of psychiatric disease. The aim of this study was to explore whether the aberrant cortical morphology was associated with insomnia in GAD. Patients and Methods: We enrolled 73 patients with GAD and 74 matched healthy controls (HCs) to undergo neuropsychiatric assessment and 3.0 T magnetic resonance imaging scanning. Neuropsychiatric batteries included the 14-item Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAMA) and the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). Using FreeSurfer7.1.1, we calculated local gyrification index, cortical thickness and surface area and identified group differences in these parameters. Then, we calculated the functional connectivity of these identified regions and determined functional alterations. The relationship between these neuroimaging indicators and clinical measurement was explored. Results: Compared with HCs, the LGI in the bilateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), bilateral insula, left middle frontal gyrus, left temporal pole, and left fusiform area was significantly decreased in GAD. GAD patients had concurrent decreased surface area in the left OFC and thicker right OFC. GAD patients also exhibited increased functional connectivity between the left insula and frontoparietal control network. In addition, a negative relationship was observed between decreased LGI in these limbic regions and ISI score. Conclusion: GAD patients presented aberrant cortical folding in limbic network. Cortical morphology is a potential endophenotype in GAD, corresponding to an insomnia phenotype.

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Although temperament has been regarded as an innate aspect of human personality, its association with proteins involved in embryonic development is unclear. Reelin, encoded by RELN, plays an important role in brain development. Herein, we investigated the association between the RELN rs7341475 (G/A) single nucleotide polymorphism, detected as a female-specific risk factor for schizophrenia, brain structure, and temperament to elucidate the role of RELN in the development of human personality. In this study, 1580 healthy young Japanese adults were genotyped for RELN rs7341475 and completed the Temperament and Character Inventory. Whole-brain analysis of covariance was conducted to investigate differences between genotypes in regional gray matter volume (rGMV) and cortical morphology. Additionally, multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the association of four temperaments with rGMV. Those statistical analyses were performed separately for males and females. Individuals with G/G homozygosity showed significantly greater rGMV in several areas of the brain, particularly the bilateral cingulate and temporal gyrus, as well as a larger value of fractal dimension in the left lateral occipital cortex. Furthermore, of the four temperaments, the novelty seeking was significantly and positively associated with rGMV in the right superior temporal gyrus, partially overlapping with areas where differences between the rs7341475 genotypes were detected. The above findings were detected only in females, but not in males. This is the first study to demonstrate the contribution of RELN rs7341475 to differences in brain structure in Japanese females, which may indicate vulnerability to schizophrenia and variations in human personality.

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BACKGROUND: Although the prevalence of gait disturbance is increasing with population aging, our understanding of its underlying neural basis is still limited. The precise brain regions linked to specific gait domains have not been well defined. In this study, we aim to investigate the associations of cortical thickness and different gait domains, and to explore whether these associations could be explained by cerebral small vessel disease. METHODS: A total of 707 community-dwelling participants from the Taizhou Imaging Study (mean age: 60.2 ± 3.0 years, 57.4% female) were involved. All participants underwent brain MRI and gait assessment. We obtained quantitative gait parameters using wearable devices and then summarized them into three independent gait domains through factor analysis. Cortical thickness was analyzed and visualized using FreeSurfer and Surfstat. RESULTS: Three independent domains (pace, rhythm, and variability) were summarized from 12 gait parameters. Among gait domains, poorer pace was associated with the thinner cortical thickness of multiple regions, which included areas related with motor function (e.g., the primary motor cortex, premotor cortex, and supplementary motor area), sensory function (e.g., the postcentral gyrus and paracentral lobule), visuospatial attention (e.g., the lateral occipital cortex and lingual gyrus), and identification and cognition (e.g., the fusiform gyrus and entorhinal cortex). Such a relationship was only slightly attenuated after adjustment for cerebrovascular risk factors and cerebral small vessel disease. No statistically significant association was found between cortical thickness and the rhythm or variability domains. CONCLUSIONS: Poorer pace is independently associated with thinner cortical thickness in areas important for motor, sensory, cognitive function, and visuospatial attention. Our study emphasizes the importance of cortical thickness in gait control and adds value in investigating neural mechanisms of gait.

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OBJECTIVE: Maternal depression during pregnancy has long-term impacts on offspring. This study used neuroimaging and behavioral data from children aged 4 to 6 years and investigated whether prenatal maternal depressive symptoms (pre-MDS) associated with child cortical morphological development and subsequent reward-related behaviors in preschoolers. METHOD: Pre-MDS was measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale at 26 weeks of pregnancy. Children (n = 130) underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at both 4 and 6 years of age. Child sensitivity to reward and punishment was reported by mothers when children were 6 years of age. Linear mixed-effect models examined pre-MDS associations with child cortical thickness and surface area. Mediation analysis examined whether cortical development mediated associations between pre-MDS and child sensitivity to reward and punishment. RESULTS: The 3-way interactions of pre-MDS, age, and sex on cortical thickness and surface area were not statistically significant. We found a significant interaction of pre-MDS with sex on the cortical surface area but not on thickness or their growth from 4 to 6 years, adjusting for ethnicity, socioeconomic status, baseline age, and postnatal MDS as covariates. Higher pre-MDS scores were associated with larger surface areas in the prefrontal cortex, superior temporal gyrus, and superior parietal lobe (SPL) in boys, whereas the opposite pattern was seen in girls. The SPL surface area mediated the relationship between pre-MDS and sensitivity to reward in girls. CONCLUSION: Prenatal maternal depression alters the cortical morphology of pre-schoolers in a sex-dependent manner.

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OBJECTIVE: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder in children and adolescents. The present study investigated the cortical morphology features and their relationship with working memory (WM). METHODS: In the present study, a total of 36 medication naïve children with ADHD (aged from 8 to 15 years) and 36 age- and gendermatched healthy control (HC) children were included. The digit span test was used to evaluate WM. The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to examine the characteristics of cortical morphology. Firstly, we compared the cortical morphology features between two groups to identify the potential structural alterations of cortical volume, surface, thickness, and curvature in children with ADHD. Then, the correlation between the brain structural abnormalities and WM was further explored in children with ADHD. RESULTS: Compared with the HC children, the children with ADHD showed reduced cortical volumes in the left lateral superior temporal gyrus (STG) (p=6.67×10-6) and left anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (p=3.88×10-4). In addition, the cortical volume of left lateral STG was positively correlated with WM (r=0.36, p=0.029). CONCLUSION: Though preliminary, these findings suggest that the reduced cortical volumes of left lateral STG may contribute to the pathogenesis of ADHD and correlate with WM in children with ADHD.

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It has been challenging to elucidate the differences in brain structure that underlie behavioral features of autism. Prior studies have begun to identify patterns of changes in autism across multiple structural indices, including cortical thickness, local gyrification, and sulcal depth. However, common approaches to local gyrification indexing used in prior studies have been limited by low spatial resolution relative to functional brain topography. In this study, we analyze the aforementioned structural indices, utilizing a new method of local gyrification indexing that quantifies this index adaptively in relation to specific sulci/gyri, improving interpretation with respect to functional organization. Our sample included n = 115 autistic and n = 254 neurotypical participants aged 5-54, and we investigated structural patterns by group, age, and autism-related behaviors. Differing structural patterns by group emerged in many regions, with age moderating group differences particularly in frontal and limbic regions. There were also several regions, particularly in sensory areas, in which one or more of the structural indices of interest either positively or negatively covaried with autism-related behaviors. Given the advantages of this approach, future studies may benefit from its application in hypothesis-driven examinations of specific brain regions and/or longitudinal studies to assess brain development in autism.

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